完璧歸趙 (Wánbìguīzhào)

[Daimashin]

完璧歸趙 - To return something to its rightful owner in perfect condition.

Literal meaning - Return whole the jade to Zhao.

During the Warring States period, the king of Zhao, King Huiwen obtained a precious bi(a round jade with a hole in the center) called Hé shì bì(Jade of the He family). King Zhao of Qin came to know of the news and demanded King HuiWen to hand over the bi in exchange for fifteen cities belonging to Qin. Even though King HuiWen knew well that King Zhao can't be trusted, but due to Qin being much stronger than Zhao at the time, he reluctantly agreed under the advise of his advisor Lin XiangRu who guaranteed that he will bring back the bi in one piece.

Upon arriving Lin found out that King Zhao had no intentions of exchanging anything so the clever Lin tricked King Zhao in order to get back the bi by saying that the bi has imperfections. Lin said, "Here, my lord. Give me the bi and I'll show you where it is." King Zhao handed the bi over to Lin. Lin exposed that it was a lie and warned King Zhao to not try to take it by force or he'll break the bi while killing himself. Having no choice the king agreed to truly exhange fifteen cities, here Lin once again tricked the king saying that the bi is a sacred artifact and it requires five days of fasting prior to officially handing the bi over. The reason why Lin lied is so that he could buy time by having one of his men secretly return the bi to King HuiWen of Zhao.

Soon the day arrived, ready to sacrifice himself, Lin told the king, "I've returned the bi to my king as I've promised. Since I've lied to you, you can do whatever you deemed fit to me." Seeing that the bi is longer with Lin, King Zhao let him go since it's meaningless to kill Lin.

Example:

"這個東西本來就屬於你的， 我現在完整無缺地'完璧歸趙'."

[linguaholic]

Thank you for providing this interesting story about the 成语: 完璧歸趙 .

The meaning of the 成语 : "完璧歸趙 " could also be formulated as:

"return the jade intact to the State of Zhao - return sth. to its owner in perfect condition"

or

"return the jade annulus to Zhao; fig. to return something intact to its rightful owner."

[Daimashin]

Thanks for the additional info. Sometimes, there are too many meanings that I find it a bit troublesome to list them so I would be glad if other members could add up to the explanation.