a hopeless task
Steaming sand for rice, a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is zh ē ngsh ā w é if à n, which means steaming sand into rice, which means things can't be successful. From Jin Jian Ji.
The origin of Idioms
The 19th edition of Jin Jian Ji written by Zhou Lvjing of Ming Dynasty: "purity is Bodhi, love and dye are hard to leave, steaming sand is the end of the meal, and repentance is the end of the day."
Idiom usage
As an object or attribute; used in figurative sentences.
a hopeless task
heaped up earth becomes a mountain - tǔ rǎng xì liú
mount taishan and the north star - tài shān běi dǒu
The monk can't run away from the temple - pǎo le hé shàng pǎo bù le sì