Fable · 声匠改编 · 3:52
The Farmer Who Pulled Up His Seedlings
A farmer of Song thinks his millet grows too slowly, so he tugs every seedling up a little. Then his son runs to the field. The idiom ba miao zhu zhang.
Narrator
The Farmer
The Farmer's Son
The Old Farmer
The SeedlingsOther languages · 2 languages
About this story
The Farmer Who Pulled Up His Millet tells the story behind the Chinese idiom 拔苗助长 (bá miáo zhù zhǎng), literally 'pull up the sprouts to help them grow'; the original wording is 揠苗助长 (yà miáo zhù zhǎng), where 揠 also means 'to pull up.' It comes from the Mencius, the book of the Confucian thinker Mencius (fourth century BCE), in the chapter Gongsun Chou, part 1: a man of Song, worried that his sprouts are growing too slowly, tugs every one of them upward, comes home boasting that he has helped them grow, and his son runs out to find them withered. This version lets the seedlings cry out and adds an old farmer next door, to bring Mencius's point home to children.
What it teaches
Everything grows at its own pace, and forcing it only makes things worse. Patient watering and weeding do more good than any overnight 'help'.
Suits
Ages 4–10
Tips for telling it
- Let the farmer's pulling speed up and get prouder and prouder, then stop dead when the son runs out to the field.
- Grow some bean sprouts in a jar together and check them every day; your child will see for themselves that growing takes time.
- It's a good one for grown-ups too: learning works the same way, and children can't be pulled up like millet.
Questions people ask
- What does 拔苗助长 mean?
- 拔苗助长 (bá miáo zhù zhǎng) literally means 'pull up the sprouts to help them grow.' The farmer tugs his seedlings upward to speed them up, and they all wither. It describes ruining something by forcing it to go faster than it naturally can.
- Where does the story of the farmer pulling up his sprouts come from?
- It comes from the Mencius, chapter Gongsun Chou, part 1, where Mencius tells it to his student Gongsun Chou while explaining how to nourish the 'flood-like qi' (浩然之气), a deep inner moral strength: don't neglect it, and don't force it. The original wording is 揠苗助长 (yà miáo zhù zhǎng); 拔苗助长 is the more everyday form used today.
- What is the moral of 拔苗助长?
- Things take the time they take. Trying to rush them against their nature doesn't help; it usually does real harm.
- Is there an English saying like 拔苗助长?
- The closest are 'haste makes waste' and 'Rome wasn't built in a day', which both warn against hurrying things that need time.
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