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畫蛇添足 — gilding the lily: chengyu story and meaning

畫蛇添足 — To spoil something good by adding what it does not need. Used when extra touches make a finished job worse, not better.

Simplified

画蛇添足

Literal meaning

to draw a snake and add feet to it

Source

Zhanguo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States), Qi chapter

When to use it

Said of extra work that spoils a finished result, e.g. over-editing a good draft or over-decorating a clean design.

The story

During the Warring States period, guests at a feast were given one pot of wine to share, and someone suggested a contest: each man would draw a snake on the ground, and whoever finished first would drink the wine. One man finished well ahead of the others, and with time to spare he decided to add feet to his snake. Before he was done, a second man finished his own plain snake, grabbed the pot, and said: a snake has no feet — by giving yours feet, you have turned it into something that is not a snake. So the fastest painter lost the wine to his own extra brushstrokes.

Example

Characters

• 畫
• 蛇
• 添
• 足

More chengyu stories

• 守株待兔 (sau2 zyu1 doi6 tou3) — To hope lightning strikes twice instead of working for what you want. Used for people who copy a one-off lucky break instead of adapting.
• 亡羊補牢 (mong4 joeng4 bou2 lou4) — Losses already taken are a reason to fix the cause, not to give up. Used to encourage action after a failure: repair the hole, then carry on.
• 掩耳盜鈴 (jim2 ji5 dou6 ling4) — To pretend a problem does not exist by blocking out the evidence, in a way that fools nobody but yourself. Used for self-deception that is obvious to everyone else.
• 刻舟求劍 (hak1 zau1 kau4 gim3) — To apply a fixed rule to a situation that has already moved on. Used when someone follows the letter of an old method after its conditions have vanished.

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