泥ní瓦wǎ匠jiàng住zhù草cǎo房fáng

What does 泥瓦匠住草房 (ní wǎ jiàng zhù cǎo fáng) mean?

泥瓦匠住草房 (ní wǎ jiàng zhù cǎo fáng) is a colloquial saying (súyǔ 俗語). Word for word it reads "The bricklayer lives in a thatched house." In use it means: The person who builds fine houses for others often lives in a humble dwelling themselves. This speaks to the irony that craftspeople frequently lack the time, money, or inclination to apply their skills to their own lives. 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 Dog.

Literally: "The bricklayer lives in a thatched house."

The reading

Every trade knows a version of this paradox. The tailor whose own clothes are mended, the doctor who neglects his own health, the bricklayer who spends all day constructing walls for clients and returns to a house he has never improved. Sometimes this is economic necessity, and sometimes it is the weariness of spending all your craft on others and having none left for yourself. The observation carries no judgment, only recognition of a pattern so old and widespread that it must reflect something fundamental about the relationship between labor and the laborer.

What kind of proverb it is

• Typesúyǔ 俗語
• FocusPresent-minded
• Element土 Earth
• Zodiac tie狗 Year of the Dog

Source Chinese construction trade folk saying

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 Wealth, Work & Diligence, or follow the years these lines belong to: Year of the Dog, Year of the Rat, and Year of the Ox.