To spoil something excellent or a good situation by trying to improve it; to turn gold into iron (metaphorically).
Era:
Ancient
Frequency:
Synonym:
Story:
During the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi greatly admired the lines "Cicadas chirp, the forest grows quieter; birds sing, the mountain becomes more serene" from the poem "Entering Ruoxie Stream" by Wang Ji, a poet of the Southern Liang Dynasty.
Wang Anshi later adapted these lines into his own poem "Zhongshan Quatrains," changing them to "One bird silent, the mountain becomes more serene." He then proudly boasted about this alteration to Huang Tingjian.
Huang Tingjian, however, concluded that Wang Anshi's revision was a classic example of "touching gold and turning it into iron," effectively spoiling the original masterpiece.