Source

The Book of Rites The Doctrine of the Mean: A gentleman walks according to the Tao, half-smears (that is, the way) and gives up, and I can do it.

Translation

Metaphor means to stop in the middle of something and not stick to it.

Idioms and allusions

Giving up halfway is one of the ancient allusions in China, which comes from the Book of Rites and the Doctrine of the Mean by Dai Sheng in the Western Han Dynasty: "A gentleman follows the Tao, gives up halfway, and my ability is enough." Later, it was transformed into an idiom. The original meaning is that the road stops halfway, which means that the cause will stop before it is finished, and you can't start from the beginning to the end. It's derogatory.

Idiom Story

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a virtuous woman in Henan County. People didn't know her name, but she was the wife of Le Yangzi.

One day, Le Yangzi picked up a piece of gold on the road and gave it to his wife when he got home. The wife said, "I heard that ambitious people don't drink the water from the" stolen spring "because its name is disgusting;" I would rather starve to death than eat the food that others give and call for. What's more, picking up the lost music of others. This will tarnish the character. " Hearing his wife's words, Le Yangzi was very ashamed, so he threw the gold into the wild and went to a distant place to find a teacher to study.

One year later, Le Yangzi returned. His wife knelt down and asked him why he went home. Le Yangzi said, "I feel homesick after going out for a long time, and there is no other reason." After listening, the wife took a knife and walked to the loom, saying sternly, "The silks woven on this loom are made from cocoons and made on looms. Accumulate one silk at a time, only one inch long; If you accumulate inch by inch, you will get a post or even a horse. If I cut it off today, all my previous efforts will be wasted, and the previous time will be wasted. "

The wife went on to say, "Reading is the same. You should accumulate knowledge and acquire new knowledge every day, so as to improve your conduct day by day. If you leave halfway, what's the difference between cutting silk? "

Le Yangzi was deeply moved by what his wife said, so he went to finish his studies again and never came home for seven years.