📖 Meaning
Literally, turning a garment upside down to look for its collar. It is a metaphor for handling affairs without grasping the key point, approaching a problem from the wrong end. The idiom criticizes methods that go against the natural order of things.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the chapter 'Wuhou' (无厚篇) of Deng Xizi (《邓析子》), a text attributed to Deng Xi, a Spring and Autumn period legalist thinker. The passage argues that driving a swift horse within a courtyard and seeking an agile ape inside a cage are pursuits that go against reason, just like turning a garment upside down to find its collar. It warns that such inverted approaches will never reach their goal.
💡 Example Usage
做学问若不分主次，便是倒裳索领，终难有所成就。
If one fails to distinguish the primary from the secondary in scholarship, it is like searching for the collar by turning the garment upside down, and success will remain elusive.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 倒裳索领
- Pinyin: dào cháng suǒ lǐng
- Literal Translation: invert, garment, search, collar
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4