8 Strong Chinese Idioms With Ox (牛)

Vast amount of knowledge

Literal meaning: Sweat ox fill house

Originally describing the vast quantity of books that would make an ox sweat (汗牛) from carrying them and fill (充) entire buildings (栋), this Tang Dynasty idiom emerged from descriptions of imperial libraries and private collections. The metaphor of sweating oxen straining under loads of books and bu...

Achieve instinctive mastery

Literal meaning: Eyes see no whole ox

This idiom comes from the Zhuangzi's famous story of butcher Ding, whose eyes (目) no longer saw (无) the whole (全) ox (牛) but rather the spaces between its joints. After years of practice, his knife moved effortlessly through these spaces, never touching bone or tendon. The story illustrates how deep...

Present to wrong audience

Literal meaning: Play zither to cow

This satirical idiom describes playing (弹) the guqin zither (琴) to (对) a cow (牛), originating from the Warring States period. Historical records attribute it to musician Gongming Yi, who attempted to perform sophisticated melodies for a cow that continued grazing, completely indifferent to the refin...

Effortless skill through perfect practice

Literal meaning: Chef Ding butchers ox

This idiom comes from Zhuangzi's famous 4th century BCE parable about Cook Ding (庖丁) skillfully butchering an ox (解牛). The story tells of him explaining to his lord how decades of practice led him beyond mere visual guidance to intuitive mastery. During the Han Dynasty, the tale became a standard me...

A drop in the bucket; negligible amount

Literal meaning: One hair from nine oxen

This idiom comes from a letter written by the great Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian (司马迁) to his friend Ren An. After being castrated as punishment for defending a disgraced general, Sima Qian wrote that his death would be as insignificant as losing one hair from nine oxen - utterly negligible in th...