look for the tip of the branch while give up the trunk of the tree

look for the tip of the branch while give up the trunk of the tree

As a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is s ǔ Nb ě nzh ú m ò, which means abandoning the root and focusing on the minor. It comes from the biography of Li Er in Sui Dynasty.

Analysis of Idioms

Abandon the essence and pursue the end

[rhyme words] soul stirring, being affected by disaster, leaping and crouching, dispelling doubts and doubts, not as good as using one's skill, turning the boat at the sight of the wind, full of Diao cicadas, at a loss, losing one's mind

Idiom usage

It means putting the cart before the horse.

Examples

You are going after the end at the expense of the root.

Idioms and allusions

In the early years of the dynasty, Li Er, the imperial censor of Zhishu, wrote well and had good eloquence. He worried about the influence of the gorgeous style of writing in the northern and Southern Dynasties, and that the people who only paid attention to gorgeous words, chanting the wind and mocking the moon would be put in important position because of this, which was to lose the root and pursue the details. The imperial court was unable to select real talents, and his petition was not taken seriously.

The origin of Idioms

The biography of Li Er in the book of Sui states: "therefore, the style of writing is becoming more and more complicated, and its administration is becoming more and more chaotic.