Ant cave breaks dyke

Ant cave breaks dyke

The Chinese idiom, y ǐ Xu é Ku ì D ī in pinyin, means that a small ant nest can break a dike; it means that a slight carelessness leads to a great disaster. From Han Feizi Yu Lao.

The origin of Idioms

Han Fei's Han Feizi Yu Lao in the Warring States Period: "the dike of a thousand feet is broken by the mole ant's cave; the room of a hundred feet is burned by the smoke of a sudden gap."

Idiom usage

As an object or attribute; used to admonish. An ant cave breaks a dyke, but the quarrel is not great. The fifth book of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty by Kang Youwei of the Qing Dynasty and the Miscellaneous Poems by Ying Yu of the Wei Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms: "the subtlety can be careless, and the breakup of the dyke comes from the ant nest."

Idiom story

During the Warring States period, Bai Gui, the Prime Minister of the state of Wei, made great achievements in flood control. He was good at building embankments for flood control, and made frequent inspections. When he found a small hole, even a tiny ant hole, he immediately sent someone to fill it, so as not to let it leak, so as to avoid the gradual expansion of the small hole, burst, and cause major disasters. During Bai Gui's tenure as Wei prime minister, there was no flood in the state of Wei.