僧多粥少 originates from the late Ming or early Qing dynasty novel The Story of a Marital Fate to Awaken the World by Xizhou Sheng (a pen name). The word「僧」means monk; 「粥」is gruel, or congee, a staple food for monks. The idiom, then, means that there are too many monks to feed, and not enough food to feed them all. This idiom can be used as a metaphor for situations in which demand is high, resources are limited, and there is not enough to go around. There are a number of English phrases and adjectival phrases that do much the same job, such as “there’s not enough to go around,” “demand exceeds supply” and “thinly spread.”
今日的成語「僧多粥少」源出於明末清初長篇小說「明醒世姻緣傳」,該書作者為西周生(筆名)。「僧」就是和尚,「粥」是和尚常吃的食物,所以「僧多粥少」意即和尚太多,而供應和尚吃的粥太少。此成語可以比喻需求量大但資源有限,以致不夠分配,供不應求。
英文中也有一些類似的說法,如諺語 there’s not enough to go around, 或如片語thinly spread,與僧多粥少的用法雷同。 (台北時報記者古德謙整理)
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