收shōu麥mài如rú救jiù火huǒ

What does 收麥如救火 (shōu mài rú jiù huǒ) mean?

收麥如救火 (shōu mài rú jiù huǒ) is a colloquial saying (súyǔ 俗語). Word for word it reads "Harvesting wheat is like fighting a fire." In use it means: The wheat harvest demands the same all-hands urgency as extinguishing a fire, because ripe wheat is vulnerable to wind shattering, sudden rain, and other losses that increase with every hour of delay. You reach for it when you want that idea in one breath, and the Fire note it carries is why we hand it to those born in the Year of the Rooster.

Literally: "Harvesting wheat is like fighting a fire."

The reading

When wheat reaches full maturity on a dry, clear day, the entire village mobilizes as though responding to a genuine emergency. A single afternoon thunderstorm can flatten a standing crop, and a hot wind can shatter dry heads and scatter grain across the ground. Every family member, young and old, is called to the field with sickles and carrying poles because the grain cannot wait. This proverb survives because the urgency it describes has not diminished across thousands of years of wheat farming.

What kind of proverb it is

• Typesúyǔ 俗語
• FocusPresent-minded
• Element火 Fire
• Zodiac tie雞 Year of the Rooster

Source Wheat-harvest proverb from the North China Plain, one of the most urgent directives in the traditional farming calendar

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 Courage & Decisive Action, or follow the years these lines belong to: Year of the Rooster, Year of the Rat, and Year of the Ox.