揠苗助长 (yà miáo zhù zhǎng)
Try to help the shoots grow by pulling them upward—Spoil things by excessive enthusiasm
Once upon a time, an old farmer planted a plot of rice. Everyday he went to the field to watch the seedlings grow. He saw the young shoots break through the soil and grow gradually taller each day. But still, he thought they were growing too slowly. He got impatient with the young plants.
“How could the plant grow faster?” He tossed in bed during the night and couldn’t sleep. Suddenly he hit upon an idea. He couldn’t wait for daybreak. He jumped out of the bed and dashed to the field. By the moonlight, he began working on the rice seedlings. One by one, he pulled up the young plants by half an inch. When he finished pulling, it was already morning. Straightening his back, he said to himself, “What a wonderful idea! Look, how much taller the plants have grown overnight!” With great satisfaction he went back home. He told his son what he had done in a triumphant tone.
His son was shocked and went to the field himself. Now the sun had risen. The young man was heart-broken to see all the pulled-up young plants dying.
This ancient fable was later contracted into the idiom 揠苗助长(yà miáo zhù zhǎng). We use it to describe the behaviour of someone who is too eager to get something done only to make it worse. It is a bit like the English proverb “Haste makes waste”.
A more colloquial version: 拔苗助长(bá miáo zhù zhǎng).