







涸泽而渔,焚林而猎 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to drain a pond to get all the fish and burn down a forest to hunt”. Metaphorically, to pursue immediate gains at the expense of long-term benefits; short-sighted exploitation. Literally, “Drain the pond to fish, burn the forest to hunt”.

Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →
Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →
Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →
Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →涸泽而渔,焚林而猎 (hé zé ér yú , fén lín ér liè) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to drain a pond to get all the fish and burn down a forest to hunt”.
涸泽而渔,焚林而猎 is pronounced hé zé ér yú , fén lín ér liè in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 涸泽而渔,焚林而猎 means “Drain the pond to fish, burn the forest to hunt”. It is used to mean “to drain a pond to get all the fish and burn down a forest to hunt”.
涸:使水干枯;泽:聚水的洼地;焚:烧毁。把池水戽干来捕鱼,将林地烧毁来打猎。比喻只图眼前利益,不作长远打算。