画蛇添足 literally means 'drawing a snake and adding feet to it' — a story about a man who ruins his winning drawing with needless extras, teaching kids that overdoing a finished job can undo all their hard work.
Character by character
画
huà
to draw
蛇
shé
snake
添
tiān
to add
足
zú
feet
Audio coming soon
从前，楚国有一家人祭拜祖先之后，剩下一壶好酒，要分给门客喝。门客们一商量：这么多人，一壶酒不够分，不如比赛画蛇，谁先画完，谁就喝这壶酒！
大家纷纷拿起树枝，蹲在地上，唰唰唰地画了起来。
其中有个人手脚特别快，三两下就把蛇画好了，鳞片、尾巴，一样不少。他抬头一看，别人都还在埋头苦画呢！
他心里美滋滋的：时间还多得很，我何不露一手？
于是他左手拿起酒壶，右手继续在蛇身上画，一边画一边得意地说：“你们慢慢画吧，我还能再给它添几只脚呢！”
脚还没添完，旁边一个人已经画完了蛇，一把夺过酒壶，说道：“蛇本来就没有脚，你添的是什么？这酒该我喝！”
那人愣在当场，看着自己那条多了四只脚的“怪蛇”，一句话也说不出来。
这就是画蛇添足的故事。手快是好事，可多此一举，反而会把到手的好事弄丢。
这个故事告诉我们：
真正的本事，不是花哨的额外功夫，而是知道什么时候该停下来。
Long ago in the state of Chu, a family finished making offerings to their ancestors and had one jug of fine wine left over. They decided to give it to the household guests, but there were too many people to share just one jug fairly. So someone suggested a contest: whoever could draw a snake the fastest would win the wine.
Everyone grabbed a stick and began drawing snakes in the dirt as quickly as they could. One man finished first — scales, tail, and all. He looked up and saw that everyone else was still hard at work. Feeling proud of himself, he thought, "I have so much time to spare, why not show off a little?"
Holding the wine jug in one hand, he kept drawing with the other, adding legs to his snake while boasting to the others, "Take your time — I even have time to give my snake feet!"
Before he could finish adding the feet, another man finished his snake and snatched the wine jug away. "A snake doesn't have feet," he said. "What you drew isn't a snake anymore — this wine is mine!" The first man was left staring at his strange four-legged snake, speechless.
This story teaches us about knowing when a job is truly done:
In short: Real skill isn't about piling on extra flourishes — it's knowing exactly when to stop.
