The clam is sick
As a Chinese idiom, the Pinyin is B à NGB à ngsh à ngzh à, which means to describe writing a good article because of failure to achieve one's ambition. It comes from Shen Xiaoze's painting of snow and ice cottage by Cai Zhefu, that is, the rhyme of Bu Zhefu.
The origin of Idioms
Gao Xie's title of Shen Xiaoze's painting of snow and ice cottage by Cai Zhefu is the rhyme of Bu Zhefu: "Alas, the disease of the clam is a pearl, and the poem can be read and faded gradually."
Idiom usage
It means that the scholar is not successful. Example Liang and Liu Xie's literary mind and Carving Dragons: Jingtong (Feng Yan) said that in the prosperous age of kanfu, his ambition was revealed and his illness became a pearl
The clam is sick
feel as if a knife were piercing one 's heart - xīn rú dāo gē
Clams become pearls from diseases - bàng bìng chéng zhū