Chinese Idiom 熟能生巧

熟能生巧

北宋时期，有个技艺高超的射手。有一天，他在训练场上练习射箭，引来了一大群人观看，大家都称赞他的技艺，他感到非常骄傲。但他发现人群中有个卖油翁只是淡淡地点点头，这使得他很不高兴。       他就问那老头：“你会射箭吗？”      “不会。”      “你认为我的技术如何？”      “一般。没什么特别的，你只能对付固定的东西，仅此而已。”      “你会干什么？”       这个老头没有回答。他把一个葫芦放在地上，接着把一枚铜钱放在瓶口。然后从他的大油壶里舀起一勺油。从高处往放在地上的葫芦里倒。只见那油就像线一样从铜钱中间的小洞里滴下去，一滴都没有漏出来。围观者都惊呆了。而这个卖油翁却说：“其实没什么大不了的，只不过是天天练的结果。”说完，他就离开了。       后来，人们用这个成语来表示熟练了就能作得好。

射手 archer 卖油翁 oil peddler 葫芦 gourd 仅此而已 just so-so 北宋时期 Northern Song Dynasty （960－1279）

Skill comes from practice

During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a skilled archer. One day he drew a big crowd while he was practicing on the drill ground. He shot so accurately that the on-lookers cheered with excitement. He became very proud of his skill. But among the crowd an old oil peddler only nodded his head indifferently. This hurt his Pride.        "Can you do this?" he asked the old oil peddler.        "No, I can't."        "What do you think of my skill?"        "Just OK, but nothing special. You've gained your accuracy from persistent practice. That's all."        "What can you do, then?"        The old man said nothing. He put a gourd bottle on the ground and covered its mouth with a copper coin. He then scooped out a ladle of oil from his big jar, held it high and began to fill the bottle. Now, a thread of oil came down from the ladle into the bottle just through the hole of the coin. Everybody looking on watched with amazement. But the old man said, "This is nothing special, I can do this because I have practiced it a lot." And with these words, he left.        Later, people use this phrase to mean "Practice makes perfect".