📖 Meaning
A metaphor for a futile effort that cannot possibly succeed. It originates from a Zen parable in which a master grinds a brick to make a mirror, illustrating that just as a brick cannot become a mirror through grinding, certain methods cannot achieve their intended goals. The idiom is used to criticize an approach doomed to failure despite persistent effort.
📜 Origin Story
From the Tang Dynasty Zen text 'Jingde Chuandeng Lu' (景德传灯录), recording the encounter between Zen Master Nanyue Huairang and the monk Dao Yi. Dao Yi practiced sitting meditation daily at Chuanfa Courtyard. To teach him, the master took a brick and ground it on a stone in front of his hut. When Dao Yi asked what he was doing, the master replied he was making a mirror. Dao Yi questioned how grinding a brick could ever become a mirror, and the master retorted that sitting in meditation could never make one a Buddha either—pointing out that the method itself was incapable of producing the desired result.
💡 Example Usage
守株待兔虽达者之不为，面壁磨砖亦古人之常事。
Even the wise do not wait by a stump for a hare, yet attempting the impossible like grinding a brick into a mirror has always been a common failing among people of old.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 面壁磨砖
- Pinyin: miàn bì mó zhuān
- Literal Translation: face wall, grind brick
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4