入木三分

Pronunciation: rù mù sān fēn Literal meaning: Enter wood three tenths

Origin & Usage

Wang Xizhi wrote out a text for a sacrificial ceremony on a wooden board, and when the carver came to cut it he found the ink had sunk three fen (三分) into the wood (入木). The account is in a Tang treatise on calligraphy, and the measurement — about a centimetre — is the whole point of the story. The phrase moved from brushwork to argument, and it now describes analysis that goes past the surface of a subject rather than writing that is merely forceful.

Examples

English: "Her critique penetrated to the core issues of the flawed proposal"

Chinese: 她的批评直击有缺陷提案的核心问题