draw on butter or carve ice

draw on butter or carve ice

Chinese idiom, Pinyin is Hu à zh ī L ò UB ī ng, which means painting and carving on solidified oil or ice, once melted, all vanish. The metaphor is futile. From "on salt and iron · special road".

Analysis of Idioms

In vain

The origin of Idioms

In Huan Kuan's on salt and iron, Shulu, Han Dynasty, it is said that "so there is no quality in the interior, but learning from the outside, although there are good teachers and good friends, if you paint fat and carve ice, it will cost you a lot of time."

Idiom usage

Combined; as predicate; with derogatory meaning; metaphor in vain. Examples not if the previous life of a partial person ～, horn useless empty text, but for the ears and eyes of the viewer also. Preface to the collection of Hongqing Jushi and qiaoju