17．王【玉】部 king; jade

抛cast砖brick引attract玉jade

In ancient China there lived a man named Zhao Gu赵嘏, who wrote very good poems. Another man – Chang Jian常建 –also wrote poems, but thought his poetry was not as good as Zhao Gu’s. Chang decided to surreptitiously solicit a poem from Zhao to keep it as piece of collection.

One day, Chang learned that Zhao would visit Lingyan Temple灵岩塔. So he wrote a few verses on the wall of the temple, but left the poem incomplete. He hoped that Zhao would see his half-done poem and would not be able to resist adding a second half. Sure enough, Zhao completed the poem.

Later people started to refer to Chang’s clever scheme as 抛砖引玉, because he used his mediocre verses(bricks) as bait to get excellent verses (jade)—from Zhao Gu.

Today 抛砖引玉means to initiate a discussion with simple remarks so that others may come up with valuable ideas. This is also a self-deprecating remark used when modestly referring to one’s contribution in a group effort.

【拼音】pāo zhuān yǐn yù

【含义】抛出砖去，引回玉来。比喻用自己不成熟的意见或作品引出别人更好的意见或好作品。

【出处】宋·释道原《景德传灯录·卷十·赵州东院从稔禅师》：“大众晚参，师云：‘今夜答话去也，有解问者出来。’时有一僧便出，礼拜。稔曰：‘比来抛砖引玉，却引得个墼子。’”景德传灯录（墼：没有烧的砖坯。砖雕工艺方法的改进用坯来雕琢更容易）

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