The tail is too heavy to shake-(of an organization) too heavy and inefficient.

Dynasty: Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period

Pinyin: w I dàb dio

source

"Eleven Years of Zuo Gong": "At the end, it will be greatly folded, and the tail will not drop. You know. "

explain

Drop: shake. The tail is too big to turn around. It used to be said that subordinates were too powerful to command and dispatch. Now the metaphor is that the organization is huge and the command is ineffective.

In the spring of the eleventh year of Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period, King Chu Ling ambushed and trapped Cai Hou at the Emperor of God, and killed him in the summer. Then he sent his son to abandon his illness and led the troops around Cai. In winter, Cai Guo was wiped out. Then the king of Chu built a city in Cai, asking his son to give up his illness and become Cai Gong. The king of Chu asked the doctor Shen Wuyu about this matter. Shen Wuyu first said that as a father and a monarch, such a choice should be appropriate, and then euphemistically said: "I heard that five kinds of big people are not at the border, and five kinds of small people are not in the court. Close people are not outside, and distant people are not included. Today, when you leave your illness outside, including Zheng Dan, the king should be on his guard. " The king of Chu thought that there was a high wall in the capital and it would be fine. Seeing that the king of Chu still didn't understand, Shen Wuyu listed examples of the turmoil in Zheng, Song, Qi and Wei, and finally reminded the king of Chu earnestly: "The big end must be folded, and the big end must not be lost." It means: if the treetops are too big, the trees will definitely break; If the tail is too big, it won't shake.

Shen Wuyu's words are philosophical quotes, which were later used as idioms. Where the subordinate weight endangers the superior or the organization is huge, which makes the command and dispatch inconvenient, it is called "the tail is too big."

A joke: the tail is too big to fall off.

The owner keeps a squirrel and often plays between his skirt and sleeves. One day, while the master was sleeping, the mouse came out to steal food. When they caught a glimpse of the squirrel locked by the chain, they asked, "You are the same kind as us. Why is it being played with? Don't you want to fight for freedom? " Squirrel sighed: "I don't want to be free, just because my tail is too big to fall off (metaphorically speaking, it is difficult to turn my head lightly), so I have to play with others."