To master Chinese, begin with characters, move to words, and then idioms. Here’s the idiom 「治絲而棼」 explained, free of charge.
This introduction highlights the idiom 「治絲而棼」, with its meaning and examples explained below.
It means that if you don’t find the clue when sorting out silk, it will become more and more confusing. Metaphorically, the incorrect way of solving a problem makes the problem more complicated.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
zhì sī ér fén
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
ji6 si1 yi4 fan4
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.

