climb trees to catch water from a flint(yuán mù qiú yú)

climb trees to catch water from a flint

Yu á nm ù Qi ú y ú, a Chinese idiom, literally means to climb a tree to find fish. It is impossible to achieve the goal if the direction or method of metaphor is wrong. It comes from Mencius, the first king of Liang Hui.

Idiom usage

Usage: derogatory. Generally used as predicate and object. structure: linkage. example < UL > < li > if you want to get out of this pass, the king is seeking fish from trees, which is not only useless, but also harmful. ——Chapter 33 of the romance of the gods by Xu Zhonglin of Ming Dynasty. ——Three wolf stories in Strange Tales from a lonely studio by Pu Songling in the Qing Dynasty

Analysis of Idioms

[synonym] fishing for the moon in the water, fishing for the fish in the mountain, fishing for water from a bamboo basket

The origin of Idioms

"If you do what you want to do, you're still looking for fish because of wood." ——Mencius, the first chapter of Liang Huiwang

Chinese PinYin : yuán mù qiú yú