亡wáng羊yáng補bǔ牢láo

What does 亡羊補牢 (wáng yáng bǔ láo) mean?

亡羊補牢 (wáng yáng bǔ láo) is a four-character classical idiom (chéngyǔ 成語). Word for word it reads "the sheep is lost, then mend the fold." In use it means: It is never too late to repair the damage after a loss. You reach for it when you want that idea in one breath, and the Earth note it carries is why we hand it to those born in the Year of the Goat.

Literally: "the sheep is lost, then mend the fold."

The reading

You keep counting what already walked out through the gap, as if the arithmetic could undo it. The one sheep is gone. But the fence is still yours to mend tonight, and mending it is not an admission of failure, it is how the rest of the flock stays.

The story

From the Strategies of the Warring States. A minister consoles a king with the countryman's saying: it is not too late to mend the fold even after a sheep is lost. The point is that dwelling on what has already escaped through the gap changes nothing, while the fence is still yours to repair tonight.

What kind of proverb it is

• Typechéngyǔ 成語
• FocusPresent-minded
• Element土 Earth
• Zodiac tie羊 Year of the Goat

Source Strategies of the Warring States 戰國策

Sits beside

Keep reading

Return to the Proverb Pond to draw another of the eighty-seven, or hear one read aloud. Read the rest of its chapter in Adversity & Resilience, or follow the years these lines belong to: Year of the Goat, Year of the Horse, and Year of the Tiger.