shān​mù​zì​kòu

one's worth may be one's own ruin

山木自寇 shān​mù​zì​kòu
one's worth may be one's own ruin
Literally meaning that trees on a mountain are chopped down because their wood is useful; used to describe how a person's own talent or ability can attract trouble or lead to their downfall.

Frequency

Written text
0.002 per million

Sources

Frequency data
BCC Corpus (BLCU)