📖 Meaning
A metaphor for selecting only the finest essence and discarding the inferior or diluted parts. It describes the ability to discern and extract the purest, most valuable substance from a mixture, applied to learning, art, or spiritual cultivation. The idiom praises a refined, discriminating eye that knows what is truly nourishing.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from a Buddhist anecdote recorded in the Zuting Shiyuan (《祖庭事苑》), a Song dynasty compendium of Chan Buddhist lore. According to the story, when water and milk are placed together in a single vessel, the goose-king drinks only the milk while leaving the water behind. This natural ability to separate essence from dross was later invoked by the late Ming–early Qing literatus Qian Qianyi (钱谦益) in a letter to the Chan master Suhua, where he praised the editing of the Zongjing Lu (《宗镜录》) as requiring precisely this 'goose-king selecting milk' discernment. The Qing poet Zha Shenxing (查慎行) also employed the phrase in a poem about raising crane chicks, contrasting the goose-king's refined choice with the crude scrambling of chickens for grain.
💡 Example Usage
他读书如鹅王择乳，总能抓住要点。
He reads as a goose-king selects milk, always able to grasp the essential points.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 鹅王择乳
- Pinyin: é wáng zé rǔ
- Literal Translation: goose, king, select, milk
- Category: Wisdom
- Characters: 4