揠苗助长
Yà miáo zhù zhǎng


Translation: Pulling up rice shoots to help them grow.
Meaning: Spoil a thing by being over enthusiastic about it.

Story
The proverb stems from a story told in Gongsun Chou shang (Gongsun Chou I) by Mencius (372-289 BCE), the most famous Confucian next only to Confucius himself.

Once, in the state of Song, there was an impatient farmer. After he transplanted rice seedlings in the padded fields, he hoped that they would grow into rice overnight. He came to the fields several times a day to watch the seedlings grow. Of course, the more he watched, the less patient he became. Finally he couldn’t help but jumping into the muddy fields and pulling all the seedlings up an inch. He believed that by doing so, he was helping to hasten their growth. When he returned home, his sons were puzzled to see him so exhausted. When asked what he had been doing, he told them that he had been helping the rice shoots to grow. “How?” they asked, and his answer horrified them. Without hesitation, they dashed to the fields, but it was too late: As they had feared, the rice seedlings had already withered.

This proverb teaches a lesson that we can’t rush things, but instead should let them take their own course. Otherwise, the opposite of what we expect, or want to achieve, will happen.
Vocabulary

Character Pinyin English
揠 yà to pull up (V) (this word is archaic. 拔 bá is used in modern language)
苗 miáo shoot, seedling (N)
助 zhù to help, assist (V)
长 zhǎng to grow (V)
禾苗 hémiáo rice shoots (N)
树苗 shùmiáo sapling (N)
帮助 bāngzhù to help, assist (V)
长大 zhǎngdà to grow up (V)

 

Example
中国家长逼孩子在课外上很多补习班，这无异于揠苗助长。

Chinese parents force their children to take numerous extracurricular classes, just like the peasant who tried to help his rice seedlings grow by pulling them up.