Diāo bùzú; gǒu wěi xù.

貂不足, 狗尾續。

Lit [Since there are] insufficient marten tails, dog tails [are used to] complete [the job].

Fig When there's not enough (of the original) good material, one has to make do with second rate material to finish up. It's a wretched sequel to a fine work.

Note [A rhyme sometimes used self-deprecatingly by authors of sequels. Note: marten tails were used to decorate the black gauze caps worn by high officials in ancient China; as a chengyu: gǒu wěi xù diào.]

Topics chengyu rhyme SELF-DEPRECATION SEQUELS