大而化之

dà'érhuàzhī
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 (originally) to enlarge oneself and be transformed — to reach sagehood
  2. 2 (modern) careless; sloppy; handling things in a vague, broad-brush way

Examples

Tā zuòshì dà'érhuàzhī, xìjié zǒngshì chū wèntí.
He handles things with a broad brush — the details always go wrong.
Zhè zhǒng dà'érhuàzhī de guǎnlǐ fāngshì bùshìhé jīngmì gōngzuò.
This loose style of management is unsuited to precision work.

Tips

history
孟子·尽心》 lists stages of moral achievement — "to be good, to be trusted, to be beautiful, to be great, to be great and transformed (大而化之) is called sagehood." Modern usage has drifted almost inside-out from the Mencian original.
mistakes
Don't reach for the Mencian "sagehood" meaning in modern Chinese — 99% of current use is the negative "sloppy, vague, careless". The classical sense is a footnote, not a usage.

Stroke Order

ér
huà
zhī