📖 Meaning
To be solved with ease, as if a bamboo stalk naturally splits apart when the blade finds its edge. It describes a situation where, once the key point or main obstacle is addressed, everything else falls into place effortlessly.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom comes from the Jin Shu (Book of Jin), in the biography of Du Yu (杜预), a prominent general and scholar of the Western Jin dynasty. When Emperor Wu of Jin planned to conquer the state of Eastern Wu, many officials opposed the campaign. Du Yu persistently advocated for it, arguing that once the main forces struck, the enemy's resistance would collapse like bamboo splitting along its natural seams. The campaign succeeded in 280 AD, unifying China, and Du Yu's metaphor of splitting bamboo gave rise to the idiom.
💡 Example Usage
只要找到问题的关键所在，其他难题就会迎刃而解。
As long as we find the crux of the problem, all the other difficulties will be easily solved.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 迎刃而解
- Pinyin: yíng rèn ér jiě
- Literal Translation: bamboo splits, and, solved
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4