披沙拣金

Pronunciation: pī shā jiǎn jīn Literal meaning: Sift sand pick gold

Origin & Usage

The Grades of the Poets quotes Xie Hun comparing two writers: Pan Yue's verse is brilliant as unrolled brocade, fine everywhere, while Lu Ji's is like parting (披) the sand (沙) to pick out (拣) gold (金) — treasure turns up, and you go through a great deal to reach it. Liu Zhiji later used the four-character form of the historian's work. The image is placer mining, where the metal is genuinely present and thinly spread, and it carries an implication about the source: you would not say it of writing that was good throughout.

Examples

English: "The talent scout had a knack for finding promising athletes in small rural schools"

Chinese: 星探有在小乡村学校发现有潜力运动员的独特能力