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Synopsis
A famous Chinese idiom meaning to climb a tree to look for fish. It describes using a completely wrong approach.
Meaning
Yuan Mu Qiu Yu literally means climbing a tree to catch fish. It describes using a completely wrong method that can never achieve the desired goal.
The Story
Mencius visited King Hui of Liang and used the metaphor of climbing a tree to catch fish to illustrate that using the wrong approach to governance would never lead to success. Fish are in water, not in trees.
Facts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Pinyin | yuan mu qiu yu |
| Source | Mencius |
| Date | ~300 BCE |
References
- Mencius
- Dictionary of Chinese Idioms
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