Carved out of ice
Carved ice, carved decay, Chinese vocabulary, pronunciation is l ò UB ī ngdi ā oxi ǔ, meaning carving ice and rotten wood. It's a metaphor for working in vain. It comes from preface to the biography of scholars in northern history.
It's very important for us to learn how to make a living
Carved out of ice
the reduced territories of a nation - shèng shuǐ cán shān