三天打鱼，两天晒网
sān tiān dǎ yú , liǎng tiān shài wǎng
lit. to fish for three days and sun-dry the nets for two days (proverb)
fig. not to persevere in doing sth; to do sth by fits and starts
三
sān
three
天
tiān
day
打
dǎ
a semantically light, transitive verb that is combined with various grammatical objects to form compound verbs and verb-object phrases with a diverse range of meanings (e.g. 打傘|打伞[da3 san3] "to hold an umbrella", 打電話|打电话[da3 dian4 hua4] "to make a phone call", 打針|打针[da3 zhen1] "to get an injection", 打手套[da3 shou3 tao4] "to knit gloves", 打氣|打气[da3 qi4] "to inflate")
鱼
yú
fish (CL:條|条[tiao2],尾[wei3])
，
,
两
liǎng
two
天
tiān
day
晒
shài
(of the sun) to shine on
网
wǎng
net