It's easier to add icing on the cake than to send charcoal in the snow.
You will know the pine and cypress when it is cold, and you will see the truth when it is difficult.
Goose feathers are sent from afar, a trivial gift, but there is a heavy yearning behind it; What matters is not the gift, but the mind behind it.
I don't want to see Chai Jing drive late. You don't have to give charcoal in the snow, just talk about scenery and write poems.
A gentleman will send charcoal in the snow, and a villain will only take advantage of people's danger.
A true friend will not only add icing on the cake, but also give timely help.
Calm as water tolerance is rare; The bearing of giving charcoal in the snow is more valuable and moving.
Life can only be self-defeating, don't say nothing to others. Wealth can lend a hundred taels of silver, but poverty is hard to find half a meter.
There are few gentlemen who give charcoal in the snow, but many villains who add icing on the cake. Don't rely on relatives and friends, things are as thin as clouds.
"Wouldn't it be that when Maxima didn't shine, Wen Bole always knew people? And if you don't see his light until he is famous all over the world, how Bole itself blooms Bole's light will only disappear from the crowd. When the ship leaves the water, it loses its wings. Bole left Maxima, how to achieve himself? Similarly, for Snyder, giving charcoal in the snow is better than adding too many flowers to the well. " -Qian Qiuqiu Mark "Fighting for the Sky"
Historical background: According to the records of Song Taizong, it snowed heavily one year and the weather was very cold. Song Taizong suddenly remembered the miserable experience of the poor in the palace, so he sent officials with food and charcoal to distribute to the poor and lonely old people, so that they could have food and charcoal to make a fire to keep warm.
Idiom explanation: Give people charcoal to keep warm in snowy days. It is a metaphor for giving material or spiritual help to others when they are in urgent need.
Sentence: For them, the first step is not "icing on the cake", but "giving charcoal in the snow". (Speech by Mao Zedong at Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art)