work fruitlessly
Cooking in sand, pronounced as Chu à sh à Zu à f à n, refers to cooking in sand. It is a metaphor for futility. It comes from Gu Kuang's poem "journey is difficult" in Tang Dynasty: "if you don't see the burden of snow and well, how can you eat it?
Idiom explanation
Cooking: cooking. Cook sand for rice. It's a waste of effort. In vain
The origin of Idioms
[source] Gu Kuang of Tang Dynasty wrote the poem "journey is difficult": "how can you eat if you don't see those who are burdened with snow and fill wells with strength?" One is for cooking with sand.
Idiom usage
[usage] as an attributive, predicate. [example] filling a leaking bucket with water is the same as ~. [note] this word does not mean that life is hard and you have to eat the sand, but it emphasizes that it is a waste of effort.
work fruitlessly
see evidence of people's distress everywhere - mǎn mù chuāng yí