完璧归赵 (wán bì guī zhào): Returning an Item and Its Jade Story

Return the item to the person it belongs to

The simplified form is 完璧归赵; traditional is 完璧歸趙. Read wán bì guī zhào, second, fourth, first and fourth tones. 璧 is a jade disc in the story. 壁, “wall,” is a different character and gives the wrong idiom.

The official entry gives the modern figurative meaning as returning an object to its original owner. [1] The intact jade supplies the reassuring image. A borrowed classroom prop or returned notebook can fit; the object need not actually be jade and the owner need not be named Zhao.

“Return it safely to its owner” is a useful explanatory English choice. “Successfully finish everything” is too broad because it drops the owner-and-object relationship.

A conditional exchange ends with the jade going back

The consulted source is Shiji, volume 81, the joint account of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru. The Qin ruler proposes exchanging fifteen cities for Zhao’s jade. Lin Xiangru says that if the cities pass to Zhao, the jade stays in Qin; if they do not, he will return the jade intact to Zhao. [1]

In the reproduced narrative, he judges that the promised exchange will not be honoured, obtains the jade again and has an attendant take it back by a byroad. The route of return matters: this is not a successful sale in which Zhao receives the promised fifteen cities.

The fixed phrase appears in the quoted conditional statement. This source fact is different from proving the modern exact provenance, price or condition of any particular jade object. The guide explains the account without inventing archaeological verification or a present-day transaction.

Original sentences keep the object and owner visible

These situations are invented for language practice.

借来的模型已经完璧归赵，连同原来的收纳盒一起交还给林老师了。

“The borrowed model has been returned safely to its owner, handed back to Teacher Lin together with its original storage box.” 已经 and 交还 state a completed return. The phrase adds reassurance to the explicit action.

这份手写笔记我明天会完璧归赵，今晚只借来核对两处引用。

“I will return this handwritten notebook safely tomorrow; tonight I am borrowing it only to check two quotations.” 会 and 明天 make this a promise. It does not say the notebook has already been handed back.

If damage or missing parts are known, name them instead of using an intact-return image to conceal them. A reassuring expression should not contradict the condition supplied by the account.

Completion, condition and ownership are separate facts

The reassuring image should match the supplied condition and handover. If you know only that an item was sent, do not silently change that into a verified receipt by its owner.

Two precious-object stories make different judgments

买椟还珠 concerns keeping an attractive secondary thing while giving up the main value one meant to obtain. 完璧归赵 concerns getting an object back to its original owner. One judges a choice; the other describes a return.

The shared presence of a precious object is only a memory link. In 买椟还珠, the consulted Han Feizi story concerns a box and pearl. In 完璧归赵, the consulted Shiji account concerns a jade and a proposed exchange. Keep the two source scenes and modern actions separate.

Is a promised handover already a return?

Original exercise: A borrower writes, “这本笔记明晚一定完璧归赵。” A summary then says, “The owner already has the notebook back.” Is that completed return supported?

Use the source-reading guide to keep a classical conditional statement distinct from its later result.