头痛医头

頭痛醫頭

tóutòngyītóu

idiom

Meanings

1 to treat the head when the head aches (and the foot when the foot aches)
2 to treat only the symptoms; piecemeal, reactive solutions that ignore the root cause

Characters

Examples

这种头痛医头的办法解决不了根本问题。

Zhè zhǒng tóutòngyītóu de bànfǎ jiějué bù liǎo gēnběn wèntí.

This kind of treat-the-symptom approach can't solve the underlying problem.

管理上不能头痛医头，脚痛医脚。

Guǎnlǐ shàng bù néng tóutòngyītóu, jiǎo tòng yī jiǎo.

In management you can't just patch symptoms one at a time as they appear.

Tips

usage

Almost always used in the full doublet 头痛医头，脚痛医脚 — 'when the head aches, treat the head; when the foot aches, treat the foot.' Always pejorative, criticizing reactive thinking.

mistakes

医 here is the verb 'to treat/cure,' not the noun 'doctor.' The structure is N V N, twice: head-ache → treat head.

Stroke Order

头 tóu

痛 tòng

医 yī