The reeds on the wall are top-heavy and have shallow roots.
The bamboo shoots in the mountains have sharp mouths, thick skin and hollow bellies.
It is said that there was a talented scholar who did not believe that Xie Jin, who came from a poor family, could compose couplets, so he sarcastically recited a common couplet: "A cow can outrun a donkey, but a horse cannot outrun; a chicken can fly like a duck." "You can't fly like an eagle" and asked Xie Jin to comment. Seeing that the scholar was so shallow, Xie Jin wanted to ridicule him, so he casually read a couplet and presented it to the scholar. After hearing this, the scholar blushed and ran away in despair. Comrade Mao Zedong quoted this couplet from Xie Jin in reply to the scholar.
But this is just a legend. I believe it is just a proverb, created by an unknown person, and finally attached to the great talent Xie Jin.
Later Mao Zedong quoted this famous couplet in the article "Reforming Our Learning" to educate those cadres who only talk rhetoric but have no real talent or practical knowledge. So, who is the author of this couplet? It turns out to be Jie Jin, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty who was good at fighting in his youth.
The beauty of this couplet is that the author uses metaphors to draw a caricature of those ignorant people who pretend to be gentle. At the same time, the words are very precise, easy to understand, and just right.