九牛一毛

Pronunciation: jiǔ niú yī máo Literal meaning: One hair from nine oxen

Origin & Usage

Writing to Ren An, Sima Qian said that had he submitted to the law and been executed, it would have been the loss of a single (一) hair (毛) from nine (九) oxen (牛), no different from the death of an ant. He is explaining why he accepted castration instead: a clean death would have bought nothing, because nobody would have counted it. The proportion does the work, and the nine oxen are chosen for being uncountable rather than merely many. A quantity too small to register against the whole — very often money.

Examples

English: "Losing that small investment was just one hair from nine oxen compared to his total wealth."

Chinese: 损失那点小投资对他的总财富来说不过是九牛一毛。