4 characters Idiom and proverb 21 223

Our free Chinese learning series introduces idioms and proverbs. These timeless phrases hold valuable meanings and are worth studying. Today’s idiom is 「買櫝還珠」, detailed below.

This time, we present the Chinese idiom 「買櫝還珠」, with its definition and usage detailed below.

Casket: wooden box; pearls: pearls. Bought the wooden box and returned the pearls. It is a metaphor for having no vision and making inappropriate choices.

The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :

mǎi dú hái zhū

while its Cantonese pinyin is :

maai5 duk6 waan4 jyu1

The vastness of Chinese idioms, with their many meanings and applications, is inspiring. We hope these resources will guide you in your language-learning adventure.