Chinese idiom · 成语
黔驴技穷
Meaning
To exhaust one’s abilities or tricks; to be at the end of one’s resources.
Character by character
Origin and story
FableThis story is Liu Zongyuan’s Tang-dynasty fable Qian zhi Lü (黔之驢), one of the three pieces in San Jie (三戒). It is not a Three Kingdoms tale. In a place called Qian, where donkeys are unfamiliar, someone brings one in by boat, finds no use for it, and leaves it below a mountain. A tiger sees its imposing size and initially takes it for a supernatural creature. Its bray frightens the tiger away.
Repeated observation makes the tiger less afraid. It moves closer and provokes the donkey, which finally kicks it. Concluding that the donkey has no further defenses, the tiger kills and eats it. The contrast is between an impressive appearance and a narrow range of abilities. The idiom describes someone whose limited skills or tricks have all been used up, and often carries a mocking tone.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
为了让打印机恢复正常，我把会的办法都试过了，实在是黔驴技穷了。
I’ve tried every fix I know for the printer; I’m completely out of ideas.
Self-deprecating here. Applied to someone else, it can suggest that their abilities were limited all along.