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Ox

In ancient times, the Ox was a servant of the Emperor of Heaven. One day, a farmer
asked the Ox to take a message to the Emperor of Heaven hoping that he could
provide some grass seed for the world so it could be beautifully dressed. The
Emperor of Heaven discussed it with all the other gods to see who would go.
“I would like to scatter some grass seed.” The Ox volunteered, “You are careless, I’m
afraid that you wouldn’t do it properly” said the Emperor of Heaven. “If I can’t do it well,
I am willing to be punished.” The Ox insisted, The Emperor of Heaven said repeatedly
to the Ox to scatter one handful of grass seed every three steps.
The Ox fell down as he stepped out the Southern Gate of Heaven. He felt dizzy, so he
thought the Emperor of Heaven’s order was to scatter three handfuls of grass seed
for every step.
The next year, the wild grass overgrew and so the farmers couldn’t plant their crops.
The Emperor of Heaven saw that the careless Ox had turned a good opportunity into
a bad one “From now on you and your descendants are only allowed to eat grass and
help the farmers in their weeding”. Then the Emperor of Heaven kicked the Ox out
heaven. The Ox fell to earth and broke all of its upper teeth. They haven’t grown back
until now.
But the Ox was a good animal that wanted to correct its mistakes. It worked hard and
did a lot of work for the farmers. So when the Zodiac animals were being picked, the
Ox became one of the twelve animals because of its devotion to the humans.
古时，牛是玉帝的差役。有一天，农夫托牛给玉帝传了个口信，说是人间寸草不生，请玉帝带点草籽给人间，让人间的景色美丽一些。玉帝听了，问众神谁愿去。
“玉帝，我愿去人间撒草种”。牛自告奋勇地说。“你是个粗心的家伙，恐怕不行”。玉帝不放心地说。“如果这点小事我都办不好的话，甘愿受罚。”牛坚持要去。玉帝再三嘱咐牛要走三步撒一把草籽。
牛带着草籽，在跨出南天门时，不小心跌了一跤，脑子晕乎乎的，误以为玉帝的旨意是走一步撒三把草籽。
第二年野草丛生，农夫根本无法种庄稼。玉帝一问牛才知道粗心的牛把一件好事办坏了。“从今以后，你和你的子孙都只准吃草，帮助农夫除草”。玉帝说完，一脚踢向牛，牛从天上落到人间，摔掉一排上牙。直到今天，它的上牙也没有长出来。
但是，牛是个知过即改的好动物，它任劳任怨，为农夫做了不少工作。在排生肖的时候，牛凭自己对人类的贡献成为了十二生肖之一。

Example:
他/她总是在一些别人看起来不是问题的问题上钻牛角尖，最后问题不仅没解决自己反而更迷惑了。
tā tā zǒng shì zài yī xiē bié rén kàn qǐ lái bù shì wèn tí de wèn tí shàng zuān niú jiǎo jiān ，zuì hòu wèn tí bù jǐn méi jiě jué zì jǐ fǎn ér gèng mí huo le.
He/she is always focusing on the questions that does not make sense, they all turned
out unsolved and made himself more confused.

钻牛角尖zuān niú jiǎo jiān
MEANING:
Someone tries to insist working on problems that do not make any sense or can’t be solved.

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