Translation of "Pluck the seedlings to encourage them to grow"

[Translation]

There was a man in the Song Dynasty who thought his crops were growing slowly, so he raised the seedlings one by one. He returned home exhausted and said to his family: "I am exhausted today, but I helped the crops grow taller!" His son hurried to the field to see, but the seedlings had withered.

Idiom story·Pull the seedlings to encourage growth

Pull (yà)

This idiom comes from "Mencius·Gongsun Chou".

During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a farmer in the Song Dynasty. He always felt that the crops in the field were growing too slowly. He would go and have a look today and tomorrow, but he felt that the seedlings never seemed to grow taller. He thought to himself: Is there any way to make them grow taller and faster?

One day, he came to the field and pulled up the seedlings one by one. It took a lot of effort to pull out a large field of seedlings one by one. By the time he finished pulling out the seedlings, he was exhausted, but he was very happy in his heart. When he got home, he boasted: "I was exhausted today. I helped the seedlings grow several inches taller!" After hearing this, his son hurried to the field to see and found that all the seedlings in the field were dead.

"Pulling seedlings to encourage growth" is used to describe being eager for success regardless of the development rules of things, but making things worse. "Pull out seedlings to encourage growth" can also be written as "pull seedlings to encourage growth".