Throwing a Brick to Attract Jade

Characters:

Pronunciation: pao(1) zhuan(1) yin(3) yu(4)
Explanation: A metaphor that means one might offer some rough idea or essay first, in order to draw out other people's better or more mature ideas.

Tone: Positive

The Story: In the Tang Dynasty, there was a poet named Zhao Gu--he was very intelligent. One year, he went to Su Zhou, where a local poet Chang Jian was always admiring his literary talent. In order to get Zhao Gu's attention, Chan Jian wrote 2 stanzas on the wall of the Lingyan Temple. When Zhao Gu visited the temple and saw the unfinished poem, he completed it by adding another 2 stanzas, as expected.

As Zhao Gu's part was better than Chang Jian's, later people described this kind of action as 'throwing a brick to attract jade'.

In modern life, you can easily find many ways to use this idiom!

Usage Example (Pinyin): Ni(3) men shou(3) li de zhi(3) shi(4) wo(4) suo(3) xiang(3) dao(4) de, wo(3) zhi(3) shi(4) pao(1) zhuan(1) yin(3) yu(4), xia(4) mian(4) wo(3) men kai(1) shi(3) tao(3) lun(4).

Usage Example (English translation): Everyone's paper has tells all the ideas I have. I was just throwing a brick to attract jade, so now let's discuss for more.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.