Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #30 To give up halfway (半途而废)
Fall by the wayside.
This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.
Story
Once upon a time, there was a man called Yue Yangzi. Encouraged by his wife, he left home to visit scholars and enrich his knowledge.
A year later, he came back home suddenly.
“Why have you returned?” asked his wife in surprise, “You’ve only spent one year studying with scholars.”
“I come back because I missed you very much,” Yangzi replied.
Without saying anything, his wife took a pair of scissors and went to the loom at which she had worked. Pointing at the half-done brocade, she proclaimed, “This brocade is woven from the finest silk. I wove one strand after another to produce the brocade. Now if I cut it, all my previous work will be wasted. It’s the same with your studies. Now, you’ve stopped halfway. Isn’t it the same as cutting the brocade on the loom?”
Deeply moved by what she said, Yangzi again left home to continue his studies.
Several years later, he finished his studies and became a well-respected scholar.
