📖 Meaning
As easy as picking up dropped items from the ground. A metaphor for a task being extremely easy to accomplish. It conveys the same sense of effortlessness as the idiom 易如反掌.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom derives from classical Chinese usage, where 拾遗 literally means to pick up lost or dropped items found on the road. The phrase implies that accomplishing something is as effortless as bending down to retrieve an object lying at one's feet. It shares the same figurative meaning as the more common idiom 易如反掌, which compares ease to turning over one's palm. Though no single classical text is cited as its definitive source, the expression has been used in literary and historical writing to underscore the triviality of a given task.
💡 Example Usage
有了这份详细地图，找到那个隐秘的山村简直易于拾遗。
With this detailed map in hand, finding that hidden mountain village was as easy as picking up dropped items.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 易于拾遗
- Pinyin: yì yú shí yí
- Literal Translation: easy, to, pick up, lost items
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4