飞蛾扑火

Pronunciation: fēi é pū huǒ Literal meaning: Flying moth rushes fire

Origin & Usage

Emperor Wu of Liang sent the official Dao Gai a teasing verse about the fact that his grandson was writing his memorials for him: the ink is ground to produce writing, the brush flies to make the letter, 如飞蛾之赴火，岂焚身之可吝 — like a moth (飞蛾) going into the flame, and what would be the use of grudging the burnt body? Old age has come, so let the boy take it on. The moth is the exhausted brush, not a man courting ruin, and the verb is 赴, to go toward; the modern form has 扑, to throw oneself at the fire (火), which is more violent than the original. The image outlived the joke, and the insect is what stayed: not deceived in any interesting way, simply drawn by exactly the thing that destroys it. Courting an obvious destruction, sometimes with admiration for the recklessness.

Examples

English: "Despite repeated financial disasters, he continued investing in high-risk ventures"

Chinese: 尽管屡次遭受财务灾难，他仍继续投资高风险项目