Chinese Idioms - 畫蛇添足

 

畫蛇添足 Draw a snake and add feet to it.

畫 draw
蛇 snake
添 add
足 feet

This idiom is form 《戰國策．齊策二》. 

陳軫, a native of 齊 State (1046 BCE-221 BCE), came to see General 昭陽 and hoped that he would not attack 齊 State. He told this story to dissuade him.

A manager got a bottle of wonderful liquor and wanted to share it with his subordinates, but it was too small to share with all of them. He decided to have a little contest to see who would win a prize. He asked the people who wanted the liquor to draw a snake; he would give the liquor to the one who finished the fastest.

Everyone started drawing on the ground. One of them drew very quickly and finished the snake in a short time. So he picked up the liquor and was about to drink it. When he saw that the others were still drawing slowly, he took the bottle in his left hand and the pen in his right hand and started drawing again on the ground. He said proudly: "I even have time to give the snake legs!"

He didn't expect that before he finished all four legs of the snake, someone else would have finished the drawing. The second man grabbed the liquor and said, "Snakes don't have legs. Why do you want to give legs to snakes?" Then he drank the liquor.

The man who painted the snake's legs ended up losing the prize that was originally his.
People hear the story, poke fun at this man who does something unnecessary then loses the prize.

This story is a metaphor for the ruin of the effect by adding something superfluous.

陳軫 believed that the general had accomplished his mission and become famous. If his attack on the 齊 state failed, everyone would blame him and forget his success.

General 昭陽 agrees to this point and withdraws his troops.

Similar Idiom

There is an English saying, "gild the lily, " which means to try to improve on things that are already beautiful or excellent." It comes from Shakespeare's play "King John":

 "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... Is wasteful and ridiculous excess".

Or we could just say "put butter on bacon".

How To Use

The phrase "多此一舉"(do what is superfluous) is often used together with "畫蛇添足".

在盛放的櫻花樹旁插上櫻花模型，根本就是畫蛇添足，多此一舉。

Placing cherry blossom models next to the blooming cherry trees is simply superfluous and unnecessary.