Hit a Stone with an Egg

Characters:

Pronunciation: yi(3) luan(3) ji(1) shi(2)
Explanation: A metaphor to say someone can not give himself a proper self-evaluation or overrate his strength

Tone: Neutral

The Story: In the Warring State Period, Mo Zi (the founder of Mohism) once went to the Qi Kingdom. On the way, he met a fortune-teller, who stopped Mo Zi and said: "From my experience and knowledge, today is a bad date in the north; your face looks dark and gloomy; I suggest you do not go." Mo Zi did not believe this and he began to argue with him, saying: "What you have said is a fairy tale, but mine is truth. Your theory against mine is just like using eggs to hit against a stone. Even if you use all the eggs in the world to hit it, the stone will not suffer at all."

Usage Example (Pinyin): Leng(3) jing(4) xia(4) lai(2), huo(3) ji(4), ru(2) guo(3) wo(3) men(2) xian(4) zai(4) pai(4) bing(1) gong(1) da(3) di(2) ren(2), shi(4) yi(3) luan(3) ji(1) shi(2), rang(4) wo(3) men(2) zuo(4) xia(4) lai(2) xiang(3) ge(4) ban(4) fa.

Usage Example (English translation): Calm down buddy, if we send the soldiers to attack the enemy, we will hit a stone with an egg. Let's sit down and think a way out.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.