Mencius told of a man of Song who worried that his sprouts were not growing, so he pulled them up a little. He came home worn out and told his family: “I am exhausted today. I helped the sprouts grow!” His son ran out to look. The sprouts had withered.
Mencius concluded: “Few in the world do not help their sprouts grow. Those who help them grow are the ones who pull up sprouts. It is not only useless. It does harm.” The idiom 揠苗助长 comes from this passage.