在唐代有位詩人叫常建，
一次好友趙嘏（ɡǔ）要來蘇州玩，
蘇州城有一處名勝叫靈岩寺，
他估計趙嘏準到那兒玩。
他先在寺前寫下兩句詩，
心中想趙嘏一到準看見。
果然是趙嘏來到古寺前，
見到了詩句隨口念，
總覺得隻有兩句不成詩，
補上兩句才完全。
趙嘏提筆補詩句，
兩旁觀者齊稱讚。
“寫得好！”聲音最響是哪個？
人群中走出詩友是常建。
自稱是拋磚為引趙嘏玉，
一時詩林傳美談。
到後來常用這成語，
比喻自己對某事的看法是淺見。
若想引人發高論，
拋出愚拙得高見。
“拋磚引玉”表謙虛，
而自誇往往惹得人憎嫌。
To Cast a Brick to Attract Jade
In the Tang Dynasty（618—907A。D。）there was a poet named Chang Jian。One day his best friend Zhao Gu went to Suzhou for a tour，and in the city of Suzhou there was a place of interest called Lingyan Temple。He figured Zhao Gu must be going to visit there。So he went there before hand and wrote two lines of poetry on the front wall，thinking that Zhao Gu would surely notice it。
It happened that Zhao Gu arrived at the place，and read the lines randomly。He considered this not to be a plete poem with only two lines，and another two lines should be added to it。
Zhao Gu picked up his brush and pleted the poem。The onlookers praised it highly in chorus。“Well written！”whose voice was so loud？The man ing out of the crowd was his poem-pal Chang Jian。He put it that he was casting a brick to attract Zhao's jade，and for a time this remained a beautiful story。
Later on this idiom was put into mon use，implying that your own view is but a shallow one。If you want to attract other people's valuable opinions，you offer him some mon place ments。“Cast a Brick to Attract Jade”shows you are modest，and that self-exaggeration may cause annoyance。