Historical Tales
历史故事
It is Like Adding Extra Feet to A Snake When It Is Drawn up
画蛇添足
It is an allusion from Volume 2 of Anecdotes of Qi State in Anecdotes of the Warring States.
这个典故出自《战国策•齐策二》。
One day a man in Chu State gave his slaves a pot of wine.
一天，楚国的一个人给了他的仆人们一壶酒。
One of the slaves told him :“ The pot of wine is not enough for all of us， but too much for one.
其中一个仆人告诉他：“这壶酒不够分给我们所有人，但是分给一个人又太多了，我认为我们可以在地上画蛇，谁第一个画完谁就能赢得酒。”
I suppose that we can draw snakes on the ground, one who first finishes the drawing takes the wine. ”
一个仆人首先完成了画。
One of the slaves was the first to finish drawing.
他拿了酒并喝着。
He took the wine and drank.
接着，他用左手拿着壶，用右手继续作画，并说：“我可以给蛇加上一些脚。”
Then, holding the pot in his left hand he went on his drawing with his right hand and said :“ I, can add some feet to it. ”
在他画完脚前，另一个仆人画完了蛇然后将酒壶从他的手中夺了过来，然后说：“蛇根本没有脚，你怎么能给它画上脚呢？”
Before he had finished drawing the feet, another slave finished his snake and grabbed the pot from him and said:“ Snakes have no feet at all，how can you add feet to them?”
接着，他就喝完了酒。
Then, he drank the wine.
后来，人们用这个典故来形容做了多余的事，非但无益，反而毁了所有的事。
Later, people used the allusion figuratively to mean that one ruins the result by adding something superfluous.
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