画蛇添足

Word by word

draw · snake · add · feet

Idiomatic sense

To add something superfluous and, by adding it, to ruin what was already complete. The snake in the story did not need feet. The person who added them lost.

It is not praise for extra care. It is not 锦上添花, which adds a flower to brocade and improves it. The feet make the snake worse. Use this when the extra sentence, the extra feature, the extra explanation, actively spoils the result.

Examples

1. 意思已经到了，再加一句就是画蛇添足。

   The point has landed. One more sentence and you spoil it.

2. 这句是画蛇添足，删了吧。

   That sentence is one touch too many. Cut it.

Equivalents

Marks say how far the other phrase travels with this one. How to read them.

1. exact

   Japanese

   蛇足

   The Japanese borrowed the feet of the snake. 蛇足 is the superfluous addition itself. Same story, same judgment.

2. near

   German

   des Guten zu viel tun

   To do too much of a good thing. Same warning against the extra stroke.

3. partial

   English

   to gild the lily

   To over-decorate what was already fine. Close when the addition is needless. The English phrase is milder. It does not always mean that the addition destroys the thing. The snake's feet do.

4. partial

   French

   en faire trop

   To overdo it. Wider than a single superfluous addition, and the same advice in many rooms.

Notes

The classical anecdote is the snake-drawing contest in the Strategies of the Warring States, in the Qi strategies. The man who finishes first adds feet to his snake while he waits, and he loses the wine. That is the usual story. This entry does not cite a modern edition.

Traditional writing is 畫蛇添足.

Sources

• Modern set phrase pointing at the snake-drawing contest in the Zhanguo ce. The anecdote is summarized, not quoted. Wording is original.