拔苗助长

Pronunciation: bá miáo zhù zhǎng Literal meaning: Pull seedlings help growth

Origin & Usage

This comes from the Mencius. A man of Song, impatient that his seedlings (苗) were not growing (长), went through the field pulling (拔) each one upward to help (助) it along, then came home exhausted to announce what he had done; his son ran out to find every plant dead. Mencius tells it against those who force what has to develop in its own time. 拔苗助长 and 揠苗助长 are the same story — 揠 is the older and more literary verb, 拔 the ordinary one, and the 拔 form is what most people say today. It is the standard phrase for pushing a child.

Examples

English: "The overanxious parent's excessive intervention harmed the child's natural development"

Chinese: 过于焦虑的父母过度干预损害了孩子的自然发展