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拔苗助長

简拔苗助长 · 繁拔苗助長

Mandarin · pinyin bá miáo zhù zhǎng

to spoil things through excessive enthusiasm (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

拔: bá · uproot, pull out
苗: miáo · sprouts; Miao nationality
助: zhù · help, aid, assist
長: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader; Kangxi radical 168
长: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–3 · ba2 miao2 zhu4 zhang3

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

拔苗助長 · find source passages ↗ · 拔苗助长 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bat6 miu4 zo6 zoeng2

Cantonese word readings for 拔苗助長. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(figurative) to be hasty and use inappropriate methods in order to achieve a goal quickly, but by doing so ruin things instead and fail in the end

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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