When it comes to learning Chinese, foreigners may indicate that the four-word proverbs and idioms are "so succinct but elusive". For instance, "钻牛角尖 (zuān niújiǎojiān)" refers to someone who wastes time and effort trying to figure out an insignificant or insoluble problem. Sometimes this idiom is used to describe a narrow-minded person who eventually gets into a dead end.
To learn mandarin well, it is essential to grasp some proverbs and idioms, and Chinese learning requires you to master the art of Chinese idioms. To use them correctly, you must understand their connotative meanings. Now let us see the classical allusion of钻牛角尖 (zuān niújiǎojiān).
A mouse went into the tip of an ox horn and couldn't get out. The mouse was in a mad rush to go to the tip of the ox horn. The ox horn advised: "Please go back, my friend. The further you go in, the narrower the road would be." The mouse got angry: "Hum! I am the toughest of heroes. I only move forward, never back!" The ox horn said: "But you are going the wrong way." The mouse insisted: "Thank you, but I have been digging all my life. How could I be wrong?" Soon, this "hero" came to his end and suffocated in the ox horn.
“钻牛角尖 (zuān niújiǎojiān)” is a derogatory word depicting stubborn people who insist on indifferent things and end up into a dead end. If you see an individual who always holds a grudge against someone else because of petty things, you may say:“你在钻牛角尖(nǐzài zuān niújiǎojiān)”. In Chinese learning, it is a frequently used idiom.
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