To toss out a brick in order to attract jade
To voice one's shallow or poorly-formed ideas to encourage others to voice their more valuable and better-formed ideas
Neutral
我刚才是抛砖引玉，希望大家发表自己的高见 | Wǒ gāngcái shì pāozhuānyǐnyù, xīwàng dàjiā fābiǎo zìjǐ de gāojiàn
I was just putting out some ideas. I hope everyone can add their own suggestions
[Source]
他在会议上先提出几点见解,抛砖引玉，希望大家发表更好的建议 | Tā zài huìyì shàng xiān tíchū jǐ diǎn jiànjiě, pāozhuānyǐnyù, xīwàng dàjiā fābiǎo gèng hǎo de jiànyì
During the meeting, he first voiced a couple of his thoughts in an effort to start discussion, and he hoped that the others would offer better suggestions
[Source]
None
None
None
《景德传灯录》(Jǐng Dé Chuán Dēng Lù), a work by Sòng (宋, 960-1279) Dynasty writer and monk 释道原 (Shì Dào Yuán)
During the Táng Dynasty (唐, 618 - 907), there lived an aspiring poet named 常建 (Cháng Jiàn) and a very famous and successful poet named 赵嘏 (Zhào Gǔ). 常建 had long admired 赵嘏's skill, and he longed to obtain one of his works.
One day, 常建 got news that the famous poet would be vacationing in his home province, and he realized that if he was clever enough, he might actually be able to get the famous poet to write some lines for him. He knew that people who came to his home province usually went to Ling Yan Temple (灵岩寺, Líng Yán Sì), and so after some thought, he came up with a plan: he would write half of a quatrain on a wall at the temple so that when 赵嘏 saw it, he would recognize that it was incomplete and would be compelled to finish it.
常建 executed his plan, then hid off to the side and waited. 赵嘏 soon arrived at the temple, and when he saw the quatrain that 常建 had written, he lifted his pen and wrote two more lines on the wall to complete the work. 常建 himself wasn't the greatest poet, but his two lines, combined with 赵嘏's two lines, formed a wonderful poem, and 常建 was overjoyed. Later, people said 常建's behavior was like laying bricks to attract jade.