draw a snake and add feet to it(画蛇添足)
an official of the ancient state of chu awarded a pot of wine to his men after the ceremony of spring sacrifice. one man said, "we have only one pot of wine. it's not enough for all of us but sufficient for one. let's determine who'll have the wine by drawing a snake on the ground. he who finishes first will have the wine."
the others agreed. very soon, one man finished his snake. he was about to drink the wine when he saw the others were still busy drawing. he said complacently,"how slowly you are! i still have enough time to add feet to my snke." but before he finished the feet, another man finished his snke and grabbed the pot from him, saying,"whoever has seen a snake with feet? yours is not a snke. so the wine should be mine!" he drank the wine. the man adding the feet to the snake had to give in and could only regret his foolishness.
from that story comes the idiom "draw a snake and add feet to it". now people use this idiom to illustrate the truth that going too far is as bad as not going far enough.
译文：
楚国有一个官员，在春天祭过了祖宗之后，便将一壶酒赏给他的办事人员喝。有人提议："我们只有一壶酒，肯定不够我们大家喝的，一个人喝倒是绰绰有余。我们每人在地上画一条蛇，谁画得最快，就把这壶酒给他。" 大家都同意了。
有一个人很快就把蛇画好了。他正打算喝这壶酒时，看见别人都还忙着画呢。他就得意扬扬地说："你们画得好慢呀，等我再画上几只脚吧！" 他的蛇脚还没画完，另一个人已经把蛇画好了。那人把酒壶夺了过去说："有谁见过长脚的蛇？你画的不是蛇，这壶酒应该是我的了。"说罢，就喝起酒来。那个给蛇画脚的人没办法，只能懊悔自己的愚蠢。
"画蛇添足"这个成语就是从这个故事来的。现在人们用它来说明这么个道理：做的过分和做的不够是一样有害的。
责任编辑：wangpeng6151
