釜底抽薪
- Literal
- from under the pot, pull out the firewood
- Figurative
- To tackle a problem by cutting off what feeds it rather than its effects; also, to deprive a rival of what gives it strength.
Where does 釜底抽薪 come from?
It does not come from a specific anecdote; the image comes from the kitchen. 釜 is the pot and 薪 the firewood. To stop water boiling, ladling it out and pouring it back helps only for a moment; what works is pulling out the burning wood underneath. The idea already appears in the 《吕氏春秋》; in the sixth century Wei Shou wrote of "pulling out the firewood to stop the boil" (抽薪止沸), and the four-character form names the nineteenth of the 《三十六计》: beating a strong enemy by undermining the source of its strength rather than facing it head-on. Today it describes solutions that go to the root of a problem.
Source (出处): 《三十六计》
How is 釜底抽薪 used? Two examples
- 与其天天劝他少玩游戏，不如釜底抽薪，把游戏机收起来。
Instead of nagging him every day to cut back on video games, it's better to deal with the source and put the console away.
- 对手挖走了他们的核心供应商，这一招釜底抽薪，让他们半年都没缓过来。
Their rival poached their key supplier, a move that cut them off at the source; it took them six months to recover.
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