withered trees and rotten stumps

withered trees and rotten stumps

Pan mu kuizhu, a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is p á nm ù Xi ǔ zh ū, which means rotten wood without success. It refers to inferior wood. It comes from the book of later Han Dynasty.

Idiom usage

As subject, object, attribute; referring to inferior material.

The origin of Idioms

"After the Han Dynasty, follow the history of Mencius taste:" Pan Mu rotten trees, for the use of all, around for the tolerance ear. If a king chooses a scholar, he should be among the most valuable. "