Xunzi, a great scholar of the late Warring States period, wrote a famous essay called "Encouraging Learning," urging people to persist in study. He argued the importance of learning as follows:
When soil is piled up to form a mountain, wind and rain will rise from it; when water gathers into a deep pool, dragons will emerge; when one consistently does good deeds over time, they become virtuous, gaining the clarity of an immortal and the foundation of a sage.
If you refuse to take one small step at a time, you will never reach a place a thousand li away; if countless tiny streams do not converge, there can be no great rivers or vast seas. Even a fine steed can leap far, but one single bound cannot cover ten paces; yet a team of ten horses, pulling a carriage slowly but without pause, can travel a great distance—because they keep going and never give up.
If you carve at something but give up quickly, you cannot even cut through a piece of rotten wood; but if you carve with persistence, you can engrave even metal and stone. The humble earthworm has no sharp claws or strong bones, yet it can eat the soil above and drink from the underground springs below—all because it focuses its mind single-mindedly. The crab, on the other hand, has six legs and two powerful pincers, yet without the burrow of a snake or eel, it has no place to shelter itself—this is because its mind is restless and impatient. Thus, those who lack great ambition will never achieve lasting fame.
Such people cannot reach their destination even when walking on a main road, nor gain recognition even when serving two rulers. It is like trying to see two objects at once—the eyes grow blurry; or listening to two sounds simultaneously—the ears grow confused. The Teng snake soars without wings, yet the Wushu rat, though possessing five skills, finds itself trapped and helpless due to lack of focus and shallow learning. It can fly, but not above the roof; climb, but not to the treetop; swim, but not across a valley; dig, but not deep enough to hide its body; and run, but not faster than a human. Thus, all these abilities prove utterly useless.
Through the above discussion, Xunzi concluded that virtuous people ultimately succeed because of their focused dedication.
Later, the idiom "The Wushu's Skills" came to be used to describe having many skills but none mastered.
Source: *Xunzi*, Chapter "Encouraging Learning"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "梧鼠之技" came to describe having many skills but none mastered.