迎刃而解

Pronunciation: yíng rèn ér jiě Literal meaning: Split apart upon meeting the blade

Origin & Usage

With Wu's capital nearly taken, Du Yu's officers proposed halting until the following winter. He answered them in council that the army's might was already roused, and that the thing was now like splitting bamboo: after the first few joints the rest comes apart on meeting (迎) the blade (刃) and falls open (解), with nowhere left to lay a hand. The physical claim is accurate — bamboo resists the first cut and then splits its whole length along the grain. What the phrase adds to the ordinary idea of an easy solution is the condition attached: the ease is available only after the hard part, and only along the right line. Problems that dissolve once the correct approach is found — never problems that were easy to begin with.

Examples

English: "Once we identified the root cause, the problem was easily solved."

Chinese: 一旦找到根本原因，问题就迎刃而解了。