不得其门而入

Mandarin

simpl.		不得其门而入
trad.		不得其門而入

Etymology

• c. 479 BCE – 221 BCE, anon, Analects of Confucius

  叔孙武叔语大夫于朝，曰：“子贡贤于仲尼。”子服景伯以告子贡。子贡曰：“譬之宫墙，赐之墙也及肩，窥见室家之好。夫子之墙数仞，不得其门而入，不见宗庙之美，百官之富。得其门者或寡矣。夫子之云，不亦宜乎！”

  (The high official) Shusun Wushu remarked to the other officials at court, "Zigong surpasses his master (Confucius) in ability." Zifu Jingbo reported this to Zigong. Zigong said, "I will use the analogy of a wall; the wall that I have built comes up to my shoulders. One can get a glimpse of the beauty inside my house. My master's wall is very high; if you are unable to enter through the gate, you will not behold the beauty of the ancestral temple or the splendor of all the officers inside. I suspect that few people are able to enter through the gate. Are not then Shusun Wushu's words reasonable? (Wiktionary translation)

Idiom

不得其门而入 (simplified, Pinyin bù dé qí mén ér rù, traditional 不得其門而入)

1. to not have an "in"; unable to crack into (a market); to try to find an in without any success; to be unable to gain entrance
   • 2005: Design News China editorial staff, 争议英特尔称AMD旧技术援华 (Dispute ... Intel claims that old AMD technology is helping China)

     在经历了多年的不得其门而入后，中国终于在2005年10月24日正式成为“X86体系俱乐部”的正式成员。

     On 24 October 2005, after having spent many years of trying to find an "in" without any success, China finally became a formal member of the "X86 architecture club."

   • undated: China National Cotton editorial staff 中国企业信息化道路 (Information Super Highway for Chinese Industries)

     因此，若你所安装或开放的功能、网络服务与通讯连接埠越少，骇客就越不得其门而入。

     Because of this, the fewer capabilities/network services and communications connection ports that you install or open, the more that hackers will be unable to gain entrance (to your system).

References

• "不得其门而入" (in Mandarin), Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary (國語辭典). URL accessed on 2009-05-15.

External links

• Google hits: .cn
• Google hits: .tw