📖 Meaning
Literally meaning to paint on water and carve on ice. It is a metaphor for effort that is entirely futile, as the results vanish as quickly as they are produced. The idiom describes actions doomed to fail because the medium cannot hold the work.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Han Dynasty work 'Xin Lun' (New Treatise) by the scholar Huan Tan (c. 23 BCE–56 CE). Huan Tan wrote that painting on water and carving on ice are efforts that dissolve and disappear with the passage of time. The phrase was used to illustrate the futility of endeavors built on impermanent foundations. Huan Tan was a prominent rationalist philosopher known for critiquing superstition and court mysticism during the early Eastern Han period.
💡 Example Usage
这种不切实际的做法无异于画水镂冰，白费力气。
This impractical approach is no different from painting on water and carving on ice—a complete waste of effort.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 画水镂冰
- Pinyin: huà shuǐ lòu bīng
- Literal Translation: paint water, carve ice
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4