📖 Meaning
To cook sand in hopes of making a meal. This idiom describes an endeavor that is fundamentally impossible from the start — no matter how much effort one pours in, the result can never be achieved. It is a vivid metaphor for wasted labor and utter futility.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Tang dynasty poet Gu Kuang's poem 'Xing Lu Nan' (行路难, 'The Hard Road'). In the poem, Gu Kuang uses the image of carrying snow to fill a well and cooking sand to make a meal as examples of completely hopeless tasks. The line '炊沙作饭岂堪吃' ('How can one eat a meal made by cooking sand?') drives home the point that some efforts are doomed from the outset. An alternate version of the text uses the character 砂 instead of 沙, giving us the form 炊砂作饭.
💡 Example Usage
想靠死记硬背掌握一门语言，无异于炊砂作饭。
Trying to master a language through rote memorization alone is no different from cooking sand to make a meal.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 炊砂作饭
- Pinyin: chuī shā zuò fàn
- Literal Translation: cook, sand, make, rice
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4