Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #24 To Draw a Snake with Feet 画蛇添足
To ruin the effect by adding something unneeded.
This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.
The Story
In ancient China, a group of friends in the state of Chu were leisurely engaged in a drawing competition to win over a pot of good wine. They agreed to use tree branches draw a snake slithering on the ground.
A man finished the drawing first and got hold of the wine. When he noticed that no one else had finished the task, he decided to perfect his drawing while he held the wine pot in one hand. He started to draw some feet to the snake.
Before he finished drawing the snake’s feet, another man had finished drawing the snake. He grabbed the wine pot and said, “The snake has no feet. How can you draw feet for it? ”
The man who was adding the feet to the snake lost the chance of wine drink.
The Meaning
This is a very popular idiom in China. People always refer those who overdo things as adding feet to snakes. It is important that we do things to the right degree and stick to the fact. To add something superfluous or go extreme can only ruin it.
