倾筐倒箧 — “To empty out all boxes and chests”

倾筐倒箧 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to empty out all boxes and chests”. To thoroughly search or bring out everything one has. Literally, “pour out baskets, overturn boxes”.

Frequency

倾筐倒箧 Pronunciation and Pinyin

倾筐倒箧 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
倾	qīng	10	lean, pour, devote completely
筐	kuāng	12	woven basket or container
倒	dào	10	fall, pour, invert, reverse
箧	qiè	14	box-like container

Example Sentence with 倾筐倒箧

为了找到那份重要的旧照片，她把家里的储物间倾筐倒箧，终于在最底层找到了。

To find that important old photo, she turned out all the boxes and chests in her storage room, finally locating it at the very bottom.

Origin and Story of 倾筐倒箧

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Prime Minister Wang Dao acted as a matchmaker for Grand Commandant Xi Jian's daughter, introducing his nephew Wang Xizhi to her.

Xi Jian personally visited Wang Xizhi's home. Others pointed to the one lying bare-bellied on the east bed, saying, "That's him."

Xie An and Xie Wan frequently visited Xi Jian's house. Xi Jian would empty out all his boxes and chests to entertain them, yet he was rather cold towards his two brothers-in-law, with whom he found it pointless to say more than a word if their views didn't agree.