畫餅充饑

draw cakes to allay hungry-feed on illusions

This idiom comes from Records of Three Kingdoms· Kingdom of Wei · Biography of Lu Yu. When Lu Yu， the minister of the State of Wei was young， his parents and brothers all died one after another， and he became an orphan. In such a difficult situation， he still studied very hard. Finally he became a talented person and served as a high officialof hisstate.Hewassouprightin performing his official duties that he was promoted to the minister of the Board of Civil Office， in charge of the officials' appointments and removals.

Owing to the vacancy of Lu Yu's original post， it had to fill up a new official for it. Although there were many officials to recommend some well-known people for the post， all were refused by Emperor Wen. He only let Lu Yu do it and also pointed out:\"It depends on you whether we can find the right person for the important post. But we can't choose someone only with fame in stead of his real ability. You see， the fame is just like drawing cakes on the ground to allay hungry.\"

Then Lu expressed his idea:\" You are right， YourMajesty， selections should depend on their real learning and abilities. But the real fame is still very important， such as self-possession and high moral character. So we should select people with both of them.\"

Now we use it to describe comforting oneself with unrealistic thoughts， without solving practical problemsand feeding on illusions.

此語出自《三國志·魏志·盧毓傳》。三國時代，魏國的大臣盧毓，自幼父母雙亡，兩位兄長又先后去世，他成了孤兒。但他刻苦學(xué)習(xí)，終于成了很有才學(xué)的人，而且做了朝廷大臣。他為官清正、廉潔，因而連連提升，后被任命為吏部尚書，負(fù)責(zé)官吏的任免。

盧毓升任吏部尚書后，他原擔(dān)任的中書郎職務(wù)空缺，需要選拔人補上，當(dāng)時有很多大臣都推薦一些有名氣的人來擔(dān)任，但都被魏文帝拒絕了。魏文帝曹睿要盧毓選好這個官，并對他說:“這次選拔中書郎，能否選到合適的人，就看你了。千萬不要選那些只有虛名而沒有真才實學(xué)的人，虛名就像在地上畫的餅，是不能充饑的。”

盧毓對此說出了他的意見:“陛下說得很對，選拔不能只看名氣，但名氣也能反映一定的實際情況，如果是修養(yǎng)、才學(xué)都好而有名氣就不應(yīng)該嫌棄，主要看他們是否有真才實學(xué)。”

后用此典比喻那些徒有虛名，不能解決實際問題或只用空想來安慰自己的人。