Chinese learners move from characters to idioms as the highest level. This free resource explains 「山木自寇」 below.
In this introduction, we explore the idiom 「山木自寇」. Its definition and ways to use it are shown below.
The trees on the mountain were cut down because they had grown into useful materials. A metaphor for being useful but not immune to disaster.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
shān mù zì kòu
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
saan1 muk6 ji6 kau3
There are a countless number of Chinese idioms, each with unique meanings and applications. We’ve provided these resources to help guide you as you dive deeper into learning Chinese.
