摘要
<正>Worried about his crops’ slow growth, a farmer in ancient China figured out a “quick fix”—by pulling them upward. When he came home boasting about his innovation, his son hurried to the field, only to find all the seedlings withered.This story from Mencius (《孟子》), a Confucian classic consisting of stories and dialogues by philosopher Mencius and his disciples, gave birth to the idiom “pulling up seedlings to help them grow (拔苗助长bámiáo zhùzhǎng).”