Idiom story about catching a turtle in an urn

Catch a turtle in a urn, a Chinese idiom whose pinyin is wèng zhōng zhuō biē, which means to catch a tortoise from a big jar. It means that the object you want to capture is already under control. Describes being at your fingertips, easily and confidently. From "Li Kui Negates Jing".

Story explanation:

In the last years of Beishang, there was a man named Wang Lin in Xinghua Village near Liangshan, who opened a hotel. One day, two people who called themselves Song Jiang and Lu Zhishen came to the shop to drink. When they saw the shop owner's daughter, they took her back. Not long after, Li Kui also came to the shop to drink. The shopkeeper cried to Li Kui that Song Jiang and Lu Zhishen had robbed his daughter.

Li Kui ran up Liangshan to fight against the injustice of the store owner Wang Lin. When he found Zhen Songjiang, he took him down the mountain with him to explain the matter to the store owner. It turned out that someone took the name of Song Jiang and Lu Zhishen to commit robbery. Li Kui immediately realized that he had wrongly blamed Song Jiang, so he apologized to Song Jiang.

A few days later, Wang Lin went up to the mountain to report that the fake Song Jiang and Lu Zhishen had sent his daughter back. Wang Lin made them drunk with wine, and Song Jiang asked Li Kui to go down the mountain to catch them. Li Kui said that it was like catching an old turtle trapped in an urn, it was effortless at all. The last two counterfeiters were caught and deservedly punished.

Origin of the idiom

The fourth chapter of "Li Kui Bearing the Jing" written by Kang Jinzhi of the Yuan Dynasty: "This is rubbing my Shan'er's itchy spot, telling him to catch the turtle in the urn and bring it to him whenever he can." ."

Idiom usage

Formal; used as predicate, object, attributive; with complimentary meaning

Example

Ming Dynasty Ling Shuchu "Surprise at Two Moments" Volume 25: "The magistrate wrote down the name and address and sent someone to get it. ~, get it immediately."

1. The Eighth Route Army led the Japanese into the valley and came. Catching a turtle in an urn.

2. For the armed police officers and soldiers, this arrest mission was like catching a turtle in a jar.