削足適履(xuè zú shì lǚ)
削 : cut, chop
足：foot
適：to fit
履：shoe
「削足適履」The shoes are too small for your feet, cut off a little part of your feet so you can put the shoes on. This idiom is used to describe the inflexible approach, regardless of the actual situation, they just insist on adapting and imitating, or do not know how to innovate so they choose the stupidest way to adapt.
This idiom comes from《淮南子．說林》. It criticizes the 晉獻公(676 BCE - 651 BCE) of the 春秋 period.
To put his favorite son on the throne, 晉獻公 killed the original crown prince and exiled the other two sons.
《淮南子．說林》
骨肉相愛，讒賊間之，而父子相危。夫所以養而害所養，譬猶削足而適履，殺頭而便冠。
Parents and children should love each other. But because of the conspirator's instigation, even the father will kill his own son. It's like cutting part of your foot to fit your shoes. Or cutting part of your head to fit your hat. So the article criticizes 晉獻公 for killing another son for the son he loves. His favorite son ended up reigning only a few days before being killed. Not only does he hurt himself by doing this, but he also does not get to the goal that he wants to achieve. So the article uses 削足適履 to criticize this unreasonable approach.
Let's try to understand this idiom in a different way
The fairy tale: Cinderella.
In Taiwan, we call it 《灰姑娘》,《仙履奇緣》or《仙杜瑞拉》.
the version I have seen is:
When the prince comes to Cinderella's house with the glass slipper, the stepmother came out with her two daughters to greet them and try on the shoes. One sister's feet were too big for shoes and the other sister's feet were too small. Both couldn't put the shoes on. The stepmother decides to cut off the toes of the big foot to make it fit into the shoes. But the trick was see-through because of the bloody foot.
This is 削足適履. The stepmother can choose not to cut off her daughter's toes, but she does it anyway because she thinks that anyone who puts on the shoes can become a princess, and since there is no innovative way to achieve the goal, she chooses the stupidest way to make her daughter put on the shoes.
If it's you, what are you going to do? I hope you will not choose to deal with things in a way that you will regret for the rest of your life.
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