CHENGYU
歧路亡羊(qí lù wáng yáng)meaning, story and origin
- Register:
- literary
- Source:
- 《列子·说符》
MEANING
- Literal
- the sheep lost at the crossroads
- Figurative meaning
- too many paths lead to confusion and loss of direction
ORIGIN STORY
A neighbor's sheep ran off. When Yang Zi's students returned empty-handed, they explained: "The paths forked and forked again — no one could know which way it went." A scholar with too many directions loses his learning the same way.
NATURAL EQUIVALENT
“to be spread too thin”
EXAMPLES
目标太多，最后可能歧路亡羊，一事无成。Mùbiāo tài duō, zuìhòu kěnéng qí lù wáng yáng, yí shì wú chéng.HSK6
With too many goals you may lose the sheep at the crossroads and achieve nothing.
专业方向不能太杂，小心歧路亡羊。Zhuānyè fāngxiàng bù néng tài zá, xiǎoxīn qí lù wáng yáng.HSK6
Do not spread your studies too thin, or the sheep will be lost at the forks.
COMMON MISTAKE
Watch out: It warns about scattered effort, not about any actual sheep.
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
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TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
- CC-CEDICT 2026-01-01