揠苗助长

揠苗助長
yàmiáo-zhùzhǎng
idiom HSK 7-9

Meanings

  1. 1 to ruin something by forcing its progress
  2. 2 to spoil things through impatience for results

Examples

HSK 5
Ràng sān suì de háizi bèi dāncí, qíshí shì yàmiáo-zhùzhǎng.
Drilling vocabulary into a three-year-old is forcing growth.
HSK 5
Xīnrén hái méi dǎhǎo jīchǔ jiù jiē dà xiàngmù, zhǐ huì yàmiáo-zhùzhǎng.
Handing big projects to newcomers who have no grounding yet only forces things.
HSK 7-9
Xué yǔyán xūyào shíjiān, yàmiáo-zhùzhǎng zhǐ huì shìdé-qífǎn.
Languages take time; forcing the pace produces the opposite of what you wanted.

Tips

history
A farmer decided his rice seedlings were coming up too slowly, so he went down the rows tugging each one a little higher to help it along ( is to yank upward). He came home worn out and pleased with himself; by morning every seedling had withered.
usage
Most people say 拔苗助长: same story, same meaning, ordinary character. survives almost nowhere else, which makes this written form look harder than it is.

Stroke Order

miáo
zhù
cháng