焚琴煮鹤 fén qín zhǔ hè

DEFINITIONS

  1. lit. to burn zithers and cook cranes
  2. fig. to waste valuable resources
  3. to destroy wantonly beautiful things

CHARACTERS

焚 fén burn
琴 qín
HSK 4
Chinese lute or guitar
煮 zhǔ
HSK 5
cook
鹤 hè crane; Grus species (various)