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钻牛角尖

*The explanations on this page are generated by AI. Please note that they may contain inaccurate information.

1. Basic Information

  • Pinyin: zuān niú jiǎo jiān
  • English Translation: To enter a bull's horn (to split hairs / to get stuck in a dead end)
  • Idiom Composition: 「钻」（To drill, to bore into, or to enter a narrow space）＋「牛角」（Ox horn (which is wide at the base but becomes increasingly narrow)）＋「尖」（The sharp tip or point (symbolizing a dead end)）
  • Meaning: To obsess over insignificant details or unsolvable problems, leading oneself into a mental dead end. It describes a state where one's thinking lacks flexibility and becomes trapped in a narrow perspective.

2. Detailed Meaning and Nuances

「钻牛角尖」 contains the following nuances:

  • Fruitless Effort: A cow's horn is wide at the base but narrows to a point where there is no more room to move. By using the verb 钻 (zuān), the idiom illustrates the futility of pushing into a space that inevitably leads to a dead end, representing wasted energy on unsolvable problems.
  • Inflexibility and Narrow-mindedness: The idiom is often a critique of someone who refuses to listen to outside advice or look at the broader context, choosing instead to fixate on a single, narrow line of thought.

3. Usage

「钻牛角尖」 is mainly used in the following contexts:

  • Worry and Overthinking: Used to advise or criticize someone who is obsessing over trivial matters or unchangeable past events, causing themselves unnecessary distress.
    • Example:「这件事情已经过去了，你就别再钻牛角尖了。」
      （This matter is already in the past, so stop splitting hairs over it.）
  • Academic or Intellectual Discussion: Refers to getting bogged down in minor linguistic details or extreme, unrealistic cases that prevent progress on the main topic.
    • Example:「做学问要通观全局，不能只在一个小问题上钻牛角尖。」
      （In scholarship, one should look at the big picture and not just get bogged down in trivialities over a single minor issue.）
  • Describing Personality: Describes a person who is overly serious, inflexible, or impossible to persuade once they have made up their mind.
    • Example:「他这个人就是爱钻牛角尖，谁劝也没用。」
      （He is the type who loves to get stuck in a dead end; no matter who tries to persuade him, it's useless.）

Additional Examples:

  1. 只要你不再钻牛角尖，就会发现解决办法其实很简单。
    （As long as you stop overthinking things, you will find that the solution is actually quite simple.）
  2. 别在这些字眼上钻牛角尖了，我们要看文章的整体意思。
    （Stop splitting hairs over these specific words; we need to look at the overall meaning of the article.）
  3. 遇到困难要懂得变通，死钻牛角尖是没有出路的。
    （When facing difficulties, one must know how to adapt; stubbornly heading into a dead end offers no way out.）
  4. 有时候过于追求完美，反而容易让人钻牛角尖。
    （Sometimes pursuing perfection too much makes it easy for a person to get stuck in a mental rut.）

4. Cultural Background and Notes

  • Visual Metaphor: The imagery is highly spatial. It contrasts the 'wide entrance' (the broad, solvable aspect of a problem) with the 'narrow tip' (the useless, unsolvable detail).
  • Usage Nuance: This is a very common phrase in daily Chinese conversation. While it is generally pejorative (贬义), it can sometimes be used in a lighthearted way between friends to mean 'don't take it so seriously.'
  • Academic Context: While usually negative, it is occasionally used to describe a researcher's extreme persistence, though even then it implies they might be losing sight of the bigger picture.

5. Similar and Opposite Idioms

6. Summary

The idiom 钻牛角尖 (zuān niú jiǎo jiān) literally describes the act of trying to crawl into the narrowing tip of a cow's horn. It serves as a vivid metaphor for wasting effort on trivialities or becoming obsessed with a problem that has no practical solution. It is frequently used to advise someone to stop overthinking or to criticize someone's stubbornness.

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