因噎廢食

Chinese

cause; reason; because choke abolish; crippled
eat; food; to feed
eat; food; to feed; animal feed
 
trad. (因噎廢食) 因 噎 廢 食
simp. (因噎废食) 因 噎 废 食
Literally: “to not eat because of [fear or experience of] choking”.

Etymology

From Lüshi Chunqiu:

夫有以饐死者，欲禁天下之食，悖；有以乘舟死者，欲禁天下之船，悖；有以用兵喪其國者，欲偃天下之兵，悖。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
夫有以𮩞死者，欲禁天下之食，悖；有以乘舟死者，欲禁天下之船，悖；有以用兵丧其国者，欲偃天下之兵，悖。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]
From: Lü Buwei, Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, 239 BCE
Fú yǒu yǐ yì sǐ zhě, yù jìn tiānxià zhī shí, bèi; yǒu yǐ chéngzhōu sǐ zhě, yù jìn tiānxià zhī chuán, bèi; yǒu yǐ yòngbīng sàng qí guó zhě, yù yǎn tiānxià zhī bīng, bèi. [Pinyin]
It is nonsense to forbid the world’s people to eat just because one person has choked to death when eating; it is nonsense to put the world's boats in disuse just because someone has drowned while sailing; it is also nonsense to eliminate the world's military forces just because one sovereign has lost his state due to his military action.

Note that 饐 / 𮩞 here was a 通假字 (tōngjiǎzì), which, as per Jiyun, had the same meaning and pronunciation as 噎.

Pronunciation

Idiom

因噎廢食

  1. to avoid something essential because of a slight risk of making a mistake
    不能因為死刑可能造成誤判而廢除死刑，這是因噎廢食 [MSC, trad.]
    不能因为死刑可能造成误判而废除死刑，这是因噎废食 [MSC, simp.]
    bùnéng yīnwèi sǐxíng kěnéng zàochéng wùpàn ér fèichú sǐxíng, zhè shì yīnyēfèishí [Pinyin]
    The death penalty should not be abolished because of possible miscarriages, this is like not eating for fear of choking

Synonyms

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