HOW TO VERIFY THE SOURCE OF A CHINESE IDIOM STORY
Original reading record; selected evidence is not an exhaustive earliest-use study.

ONE CLAIM TO CHECK:
HEADWORD AND VARIANT:
BOOK AND SECTION LOCATOR:
CONSULTED VERSION / REPRODUCTION:
FULL ENTRY OR PASSAGE URL:
ACTUAL ACCESS DATE:

EVIDENCE TYPE
Source passage / source explanation / documented use / related form / unknown:
What the actual words support:
What they do not establish:

QUOTATION AND RETELLING
Exact short Chinese excerpt:
Omissions, character conversion or note-marker handling:
Original translation or named published translator:
Modern retelling / adaptation and changed details:
Remaining uncertainty:

SOURCE-COMPARISON EXAMPLES (note markers omitted; English renderings original)
Snake contest | 請畫地為蛇，先成者飲酒。 | Let us draw snakes on the ground; whoever finishes first drinks the wine. | The contest and reward are in the reproduced source.
Objection to the feet | 蛇固無足，子安能為之足。 | A snake has no feet; how can you give it feet? | The objection concerns adding an unsuitable feature.
Consequence | 為蛇足者，終亡其酒。 | The person who added feet to the snake ultimately lost his wine. | The unnecessary addition costs the first finisher his reward.
Horse-image comparison | 猶察伯樂之圖，求騏驥於市 | Like examining Bole’s drawings while seeking fine horses in the market. | This is an underlying image, not the full wording 按圖索驥.

EXAMPLE CITATION RECORD
Headword | 畫蛇添足 / 画蛇添足 | Record the form you searched and any variant.
Text locator | 《戰國策．齊策二》 | Copy the book and section supplied by the source.
Version consulted | MOE Dictionary of Chinese Idioms 2020 [Advanced], entry ID 23 | This identifies the online reproduction, not a separately checked printed critical edition.
Evidence type | Reproduced source passage, source explanation and later examples | Do not merge those sections into one earliest-use claim.
Quotation status | Short Chinese excerpt; dictionary note markers omitted | Keep substantive words and disclose changes relevant to the quotation.
Your contribution | Original English rendering and modern retelling | Do not attribute your English wording to the classical author.
Access and link | Record the date you actually consulted it and the full entry URL | A home page alone does not let another reader find the passage.

SIX FICTIONAL CASES
Case 1: A dictionary says a four-character idiom is based on an older passage, but those four characters do not appear together in the reproduced line. Can you claim the complete idiom occurs verbatim there?
Your answer and reason: ______________________

Case 2: A famous frog-for-a-horse anecdote appears under a related variant in a later work. Is its familiarity enough to make it the sole earliest source of 按图索骥?
Your answer and reason: ______________________

Case 3: You translate 蛇固無足 into your own English sentence. May you put the English in quotation marks and attribute its exact wording to the classical author without explaining the translation?
Your answer and reason: ______________________

Case 4: For a classroom adaptation, you change drawing on the ground into drawing on paper. Can you present the adapted scene as a direct quotation of the reproduced source?
Your answer and reason: ______________________

Case 5: A later novel contains 畫蛇添足 in a sentence. Does that documented example alone prove the novelist invented the idiom?
Your answer and reason: ______________________

Case 6: You have read only the dictionary’s reproduced excerpt and source note. Should the citation say you checked the entire classical book in a named printed edition?
Your answer and reason: ______________________

ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
Case 1: No. Identify it as the underlying passage or image, not an exact occurrence of the complete form.
The MOE 按圖索驥 entry marks the connection as 語本 and reproduces a horse-image comparison in the Mei Fu material of Han Shu volume 67. Check the actual words rather than transferring the modern headword into the quotation.

Case 2: No. Preserve the variant, named work and relationship to the main entry.
The MOE entry lists the anecdote under 按圖索駿 in Yang Shen’s Yi Lin Fa Shan, volume 7, “Xiang Ma Jing.” That is separate from its main Han Shu origin connection. This selected evidence does not establish the earliest surviving use of either form.

Case 3: No. Label the English rendering as your translation or paraphrase.
The classical Chinese words and your English wording are different records. Give the source locator and identify your contribution. Quotation marks alone do not identify who produced a translation.

Case 4: No. It is an adaptation and should be labelled as one.
The source comparison here includes 畫地為蛇, drawing a snake on the ground. You may simplify or adapt a story for a stated teaching purpose, but do not silently replace a source detail inside a quotation or report the new detail as source evidence.

Case 5: No. An attestation shows use in that recorded passage, not authorship of the expression.
The MOE entry separates the source story from later documented uses, including a passage in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. A selected example is not an exhaustive search for the first surviving occurrence.

Case 6: No. Cite the reproduction you actually consulted and retain the limit.
A precise online entry, book and section locator let another reader check the evidence. They do not establish a full-book reading, comparison of printed editions or manuscript research that you did not perform.

SOURCE REFERENCES
MOE Dictionary of Chinese Idioms 2020 [Advanced]: 畫蛇添足, entry 23
https://dict.idioms.moe.edu.tw/idiomView.jsp?ID=23&q=1
MOE Dictionary of Chinese Idioms 2020 [Advanced]: 按圖索驥, entry 158
https://dict.idioms.moe.edu.tw/idiomView.jsp?ID=158&q=1