"買櫝還珠" meaning in Chinese

See 買櫝還珠 in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

IPA: /maɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ tu³⁵ xu̯än³⁵ ʈ͡ʂu⁵⁵/ [Mandarin, Sinological-IPA], /maɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ tu³⁵ xu̯än³⁵ ʈ͡ʂu⁵⁵/ Chinese transliterations: mǎidúhuánzhū [Mandarin, Pinyin], ㄇㄞˇ ㄉㄨˊ ㄏㄨㄢˊ ㄓㄨ [Mandarin, bopomofo], mǎidúhuánzhū [Hanyu-Pinyin, Mandarin], mǎidúhuánjhu [Mandarin, Tongyong-Pinyin], mai³-tu²-huan²-chu¹ [Mandarin, Wade-Giles], mǎi-dú-hwán-jū [Mandarin, Yale], maedwuhwanju [Gwoyeu-Romatsyh, Mandarin], майдухуаньчжу [Mandarin, Palladius], majduxuanʹčžu [Mandarin, Palladius] Forms: 买椟还珠
Etymology: From Han Feizi, Chapter 32 (《韓非子·外儲說左上》). Originally meant to criticize those who put too much rhetoric into their writings, causing people to be impressed with their words but miss their useful ideas. Etymology templates: {{lang|zh|(《韓非子·外儲說左上》)}} (《韓非子·外儲說左上》) Head templates: {{head|zh|idiom}} 買櫝還珠
  1. (figurative) to show poor judgement Wikipedia link: Han Feizi Tags: figuratively, idiomatic
{
  "etymology_examples": [
    {
      "english": "Once upon a time a man of Chu was selling pearls in Zheng. For the pearls he made magnolia boxes, which he perfumed with cassia spice, bound with beads, decorated them with red gems, and filled harmoniously with the kingfisher's feather. In the long run people in Zheng bought the caskets but returned the pearls. This may be said to be good in selling caskets but cannot be said to be good in trading pearls.",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Classical Chinese",
        "Traditional Chinese"
      ],
      "ref": " Han Feizi, circa 2ⁿᵈ century BCE, translated based on W. K. Liao's version",
      "roman": "Chǔ rén yǒu mài qí zhū yú Zhèng zhě, wéi mùlán zhī dú, xūn yǐ guìjiāo, zhuì yǐ zhūyù, shì yǐ méiguī, jí yǐ fěicuì. Zhèng rén mǎi qí dú ér huán qí zhū. Cǐ kěwèi shàn mài dú yǐ, wèi kěwèi shàn yù zhū yě.",
      "tags": [
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "text": "楚人有賣其珠於鄭者,爲木蘭之櫝,薰以桂椒,綴以珠玉,飾以玫瑰,輯以翡翠。鄭人買其櫝而還其珠。此可謂善賣櫝矣,未可謂善鬻珠也。",
      "type": "quote"
    },
    {
      "english": "Once upon a time a man of Chu was selling pearls in Zheng. For the pearls he made magnolia boxes, which he perfumed with cassia spice, bound with beads, decorated them with red gems, and filled harmoniously with the kingfisher's feather. In the long run people in Zheng bought the caskets but returned the pearls. This may be said to be good in selling caskets but cannot be said to be good in trading pearls.",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Classical Chinese",
        "Simplified Chinese"
      ],
      "ref": " Han Feizi, circa 2ⁿᵈ century BCE, translated based on W. K. Liao's version",
      "roman": "Chǔ rén yǒu mài qí zhū yú Zhèng zhě, wéi mùlán zhī dú, xūn yǐ guìjiāo, zhuì yǐ zhūyù, shì yǐ méiguī, jí yǐ fěicuì. Zhèng rén mǎi qí dú ér huán qí zhū. Cǐ kěwèi shàn mài dú yǐ, wèi kěwèi shàn yù zhū yě.",
      "tags": [
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "text": "楚人有卖其珠于郑者,为木兰之椟,薰以桂椒,缀以珠玉,饰以玫瑰,辑以翡翠。郑人买其椟而还其珠。此可谓善卖椟矣,未可谓善鬻珠也。",
      "type": "quote"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "zh",
        "2": "(《韓非子·外儲說左上》)"
      },
      "expansion": "(《韓非子·外儲說左上》)",
      "name": "lang"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Han Feizi, Chapter 32 (《韓非子·外儲說左上》). Originally meant to criticize those who put too much rhetoric into their writings, causing people to be impressed with their words but miss their useful ideas.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "买椟还珠",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Simplified Chinese"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "zh",
        "2": "idiom"
      },
      "expansion": "買櫝還珠",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Chinese",
  "lang_code": "zh",
  "literal_meaning": "tobuy a wooden box and return the pearls inside",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Chinese chengyu",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Chinese entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin chengyu",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to show poor judgement"
      ],
      "id": "en-買櫝還珠-zh-phrase-fhnHAaNM",
      "links": [
        [
          "show",
          "show"
        ],
        [
          "poor",
          "poor"
        ],
        [
          "judgement",
          "judgement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) to show poor judgement"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Han Feizi"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mǎidúhuánzhū"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "ㄇㄞˇ ㄉㄨˊ ㄏㄨㄢˊ ㄓㄨ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Hanyu-Pinyin",
        "Mandarin"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mǎidúhuánzhū"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Tongyong-Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mǎidúhuánjhu"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Wade-Giles"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mai³-tu²-huan²-chu¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mǎi-dú-hwán-jū"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Gwoyeu-Romatsyh",
        "Mandarin"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "maedwuhwanju"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "майдухуаньчжу"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "majduxuanʹčžu"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/maɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ tu³⁵ xu̯än³⁵ ʈ͡ʂu⁵⁵/",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/maɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ tu³⁵ xu̯än³⁵ ʈ͡ʂu⁵⁵/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "買櫝還珠"
}
{
  "etymology_examples": [
    {
      "english": "Once upon a time a man of Chu was selling pearls in Zheng. For the pearls he made magnolia boxes, which he perfumed with cassia spice, bound with beads, decorated them with red gems, and filled harmoniously with the kingfisher's feather. In the long run people in Zheng bought the caskets but returned the pearls. This may be said to be good in selling caskets but cannot be said to be good in trading pearls.",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Classical Chinese",
        "Traditional Chinese"
      ],
      "ref": " Han Feizi, circa 2ⁿᵈ century BCE, translated based on W. K. Liao's version",
      "roman": "Chǔ rén yǒu mài qí zhū yú Zhèng zhě, wéi mùlán zhī dú, xūn yǐ guìjiāo, zhuì yǐ zhūyù, shì yǐ méiguī, jí yǐ fěicuì. Zhèng rén mǎi qí dú ér huán qí zhū. Cǐ kěwèi shàn mài dú yǐ, wèi kěwèi shàn yù zhū yě.",
      "tags": [
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "text": "楚人有賣其珠於鄭者,爲木蘭之櫝,薰以桂椒,綴以珠玉,飾以玫瑰,輯以翡翠。鄭人買其櫝而還其珠。此可謂善賣櫝矣,未可謂善鬻珠也。",
      "type": "quote"
    },
    {
      "english": "Once upon a time a man of Chu was selling pearls in Zheng. For the pearls he made magnolia boxes, which he perfumed with cassia spice, bound with beads, decorated them with red gems, and filled harmoniously with the kingfisher's feather. In the long run people in Zheng bought the caskets but returned the pearls. This may be said to be good in selling caskets but cannot be said to be good in trading pearls.",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Classical Chinese",
        "Simplified Chinese"
      ],
      "ref": " Han Feizi, circa 2ⁿᵈ century BCE, translated based on W. K. Liao's version",
      "roman": "Chǔ rén yǒu mài qí zhū yú Zhèng zhě, wéi mùlán zhī dú, xūn yǐ guìjiāo, zhuì yǐ zhūyù, shì yǐ méiguī, jí yǐ fěicuì. Zhèng rén mǎi qí dú ér huán qí zhū. Cǐ kěwèi shàn mài dú yǐ, wèi kěwèi shàn yù zhū yě.",
      "tags": [
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "text": "楚人有卖其珠于郑者,为木兰之椟,薰以桂椒,缀以珠玉,饰以玫瑰,辑以翡翠。郑人买其椟而还其珠。此可谓善卖椟矣,未可谓善鬻珠也。",
      "type": "quote"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "zh",
        "2": "(《韓非子·外儲說左上》)"
      },
      "expansion": "(《韓非子·外儲說左上》)",
      "name": "lang"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Han Feizi, Chapter 32 (《韓非子·外儲說左上》). Originally meant to criticize those who put too much rhetoric into their writings, causing people to be impressed with their words but miss their useful ideas.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "买椟还珠",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Simplified Chinese"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "zh",
        "2": "idiom"
      },
      "expansion": "買櫝還珠",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Chinese",
  "lang_code": "zh",
  "literal_meaning": "tobuy a wooden box and return the pearls inside",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Chinese chengyu",
        "Chinese entries with incorrect language header",
        "Chinese idioms",
        "Chinese lemmas",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 櫝",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 珠",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 買",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 還",
        "Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "Mandarin chengyu",
        "Mandarin idioms",
        "Mandarin lemmas",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to show poor judgement"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "show",
          "show"
        ],
        [
          "poor",
          "poor"
        ],
        [
          "judgement",
          "judgement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) to show poor judgement"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Han Feizi"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mǎidúhuánzhū"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "ㄇㄞˇ ㄉㄨˊ ㄏㄨㄢˊ ㄓㄨ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Hanyu-Pinyin",
        "Mandarin"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mǎidúhuánzhū"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Tongyong-Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mǎidúhuánjhu"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Wade-Giles"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mai³-tu²-huan²-chu¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "mǎi-dú-hwán-jū"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Gwoyeu-Romatsyh",
        "Mandarin"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "maedwuhwanju"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "майдухуаньчжу"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh-pron": "majduxuanʹčžu"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/maɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ tu³⁵ xu̯än³⁵ ʈ͡ʂu⁵⁵/",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/maɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ tu³⁵ xu̯än³⁵ ʈ͡ʂu⁵⁵/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "買櫝還珠"
}

Download raw JSONL data for 買櫝還珠 meaning in Chinese (4.3kB)

{
  "called_from": "pronunciations/296/20230324",
  "msg": "Zh-pron header not found in zh_pron_tags or tags: '(Standard Chinese)⁺'",
  "path": [
    "買櫝還珠"
  ],
  "section": "Chinese",
  "subsection": "",
  "title": "買櫝還珠",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Chinese dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (b941637 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.