📖 Meaning
This idiom means to deliberately create problems where none exist, or to make trouble for oneself. It describes someone who, out of idleness or excessive fussing, invents difficulties and brings unnecessary suffering upon themselves, like cutting a fresh wound into perfectly healthy flesh. It is often used to criticize pointless meddling or self-inflicted vexation.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the 《续传灯录》(Continued Transmission of the Lamp), a Chan (Zen) Buddhist lineage text. The original line reads: 说佛说祖，正如好肉剜疮；举古举今，犹若残羹馊饭 — 'Discussing the Buddha and the patriarchs is just like cutting a sore out of healthy flesh; invoking the ancients and the present is like leftover soup and stale rice.' It was a Chan master's rebuke of empty, verbose talk about the dharma, suggesting that over-elaborate discussion harms the truth rather than helps it, just as carving a wound into healthy flesh injures what was sound. The work continues the Song-dynasty transmission-of-the-lamp tradition of Chan records, with the commonly cited version compiled in the Ming dynasty.
💡 Example Usage
你本来好好的，何必好肉剜疮，自寻烦恼？
You were doing just fine, so why cut a sore into healthy flesh and bring trouble on yourself?
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 好肉剜疮
- Pinyin: hǎo ròu wān chuāng
- Literal Translation: good flesh, gouge out, sore
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4