Dancing with the axe in front of Lu Ban. The metaphor is to show off one’s skills in front of connoisseurs.
Idiom Pronunciation:
班门弄斧
bān mén nòng fǔ
Origin:
《王氏伯仲唱和诗序》：“操斧于班、郢之门，斯强颜耳。”
Story:
A pile of earth by the river Caishi
Li Bai’s name is high for thousands of years.
A poem comes and goes.
Playing with the big axe at the door of Lupin.
This is the poem of Li Bai’s tomb written by Mei Zhilan in Ming Dynasty. Li Bai was a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, about Li Bai’s death, there are various mythical legends. For example, some say that in his later years, Li Bai visited Dongting, Yueyang and Jinling. One day, when he was moored in a boat by the Caishi River, the moon was as bright as day at night, and Li Bai drank to the moon in the boat. Some legends are even more fabulous, saying that at that time, the wind and waves in the river suddenly made a huge whale appear, and two fairy boys, holding jingles, invited Li Bai to sit on the back of the whale, with music leading the way, and took off into the air.
The above legend, of course, cannot be believed to be true, but in Caishi, there were many famous places later. There are not only Li Bai’s tomb, but also the Exiled Immortal Building and the Moon Catching Pavilion, which have aroused the interest of countless visitors. Some of the travelers who are not able to write but want to pretend to be elegant even write nonsense inscriptions on Li Bai’s tomb, which is very ridiculous. This poem by Mei Zhilan is a mockery of such visitors. He thinks that inscribing a poem on the tomb of the great poet is simply “getting a big axe in front of the door of Luban”, which is too insolent.
The poem mentions Lu Ban, whose surname is said to be Gong Lu and his name is Ban, a native of the State of Lu in the Warring States period, also known as Lu Ban. He was a skilled craftsman who was good at making delicate utensils, and people called him “the clever man”. He was traditionally regarded as the originator of carpentry. Who dares to show off his skills in using the axe in front of the grand master, Lu Ban? In other words, want to show their skills in front of the great experts, this ridiculous behavior is too modest, called “Lu Ban door to get a big axe”, briefly as “Ban door to get an axe”. It is similar to the meaning of the proverbial “playing with a big knife in front of Guangong”.
Similar Idioms:
- 关公面前耍大刀
