Chinese idiom · 成语
九牛一毛
Meaning
One hair from nine oxen; a negligible amount.
Character by character
Origin and story
literaryIn Sima Qian's letter to Ren An, preserved in his biography in the Book of Han (汉书), he considers how little his death would matter to society. He says that if he were executed, it would be like nine oxen losing a single hair, scarcely different from an ant's death. He believes people would not honor him as someone who died for principle, but dismiss him as a condemned man with no escape.
This is a painful reflection on status, disgrace, and the value assigned to a life. The later idiom generalizes the disproportion in the image: a tiny part of a much larger whole. It can now describe money or quantities without carrying the original personal anguish.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
这点维修费和整年的租金相比，只是九牛一毛。
Compared with a whole year's rent, this repair bill is negligible.
Requires a much larger whole as the comparison; the example uses contextual yì for 一.