📖 Meaning
Literally 'cutting flesh to form a new sore.' It describes a situation where someone tries to fix one problem but, by acting narrowly, creates an equally serious new one. The idiom warns against short-sighted remedies that backfire because they ignore the whole picture.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom '剜肉成疮' does not trace to a single classical text or named historical anecdote; rather, it grew out of Chinese folk proverbial wisdom. Its vivid image—slicing healthy flesh from one part of the body to treat a sore elsewhere, only for the cut itself to fester into a fresh wound—draws on traditional medical metaphors common in vernacular speech. It circulated orally and appears in later colloquial writings and proverb compilations as a caution against one-sided, counterproductive fixes. No specific dynasty or figure is attached to it, which is typical of idioms rooted in everyday observation rather than literature. Its enduring force comes from the visceral clarity of the medical imagery, making the danger of self-defeating action immediately graspable.
💡 Example Usage
为还旧债去借高利贷，无异于剜肉成疮，只会陷得更深。
Taking out a loan shark's debt to repay old debts is like cutting flesh to form a new sore—it only drags you in deeper.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 剜肉成疮
- Pinyin: wān ròu chéng chuāng
- Literal Translation: cut, flesh, become, sore
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4