拾人牙慧

Origin and story

A brief anecdote in A New Account of Tales of the World records Yin Hao saying that Han Kangbo has not obtained even the wisdom behind his teeth. The image concerns cleverness expressed in speech. The original is a cutting comparison of intellectual ability; it does not say that Han was caught stealing a manuscript or repeating a particular argument.

The later idiom adds the action of picking up someone else's verbal wisdom. Qing writers use it to criticize derivative commentary and borrowed claims without independent insight. It is consequently sharper than simply citing a source: responsible acknowledgment and original thought are not what the phrase condemns.