买椟还珠Buy the Case and Return the Pearl

Buy the Case and Return the Pearl（成语 买椟还珠 英文）


A man of the State of Chu went to the State of Zheng(1) to sell his pearl. He had made a case for the pearl with fine grained molan wood, fumigated it with cinnamon incense, mouted it with white jade, adorned it with rose-coloured stone and sewed green jadeite onto its fringes. The craftsmanship was so exquisite that a Zheng buyer took the case but returned the pearl to the seller.

It may be said that the man was good at selling the case, but not the pearl(2).

________________________________
(1) Both were states during the Zhou Dynastic rule.
(2) This idiomatic expression has always been used to satirise the man of Zheng, the buyer, mstead, because he did not know what right choice he should make-a thing of real worth,not one of beautiful appearance.

买椟还珠(chinese idioms)

春秋时代，楚国有一个商人，专门卖珠宝的，有一次他到齐国去兜售珠宝，为了生意好，珠宝畅销起见，特地用名贵的木料，造成许多小盒子，把盒子雕刻装饰得非常精致美观，使盒子会发出一种香味，然后把珠宝装在盒子里面。 有一个郑国人，看见装宝珠的盒子既精致又美观，问明了价钱后，就买了一个，打开盒子，把里面的宝物拿出来，退还给珠宝商。

　　郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍

买椟还珠,比喻没有眼光，取舍不当。