盤根錯節

盘根错节
pángēncuòjié
  1. twisted roots and intertwined joints (idiom); complicated and very tricky
  2. knotty and deeply-rooted difficulties

CEDICT

great tangled root system; complicated affair; complicated and difficult to deal with

Wiktionary

樹木的根幹枝節盤屈交錯。比喻事情複雜，不易理解。《魏書．卷六八．甄琛傳》：「今河南郡是陛下天山之堅木，盤根錯節，亂植其中。」也作「槃根錯節」、「錯節盤根」。

重編國語辭典

事情複雜，不易分解

維基詞典

Entry Composition

1 盤 pán
  1. tray; plate; dish
  2. (finance) (bound form) market prices
  3. (computing) (bound form) disk
  4. to coil (a rope, pigtail etc)
  5. to check; to examine; to investigate
  6. to transfer; to sell (property)
  7. to shift; to move (sth big and heavy)
  8. classifier for things resembling a plate or dish
  9. classifier for coils
  10. classifier for games or matches (chess, table tennis etc)
2 根 gēn
  1. root
  2. basis
  3. classifier for long slender objects, e.g. cigarettes, guitar strings
  4. radical (chemistry)

classifier: 條
3 錯 cuò
  1. mistake
  2. wrong
  3. bad
  4. interlocking
  5. complex
  6. to grind
  7. to polish
  8. to alternate
  9. to stagger
  10. to miss
  11. to let slip
  12. to evade
  13. to inlay with gold or silver
4 節 jié
  1. joint; node
  2. (bound form) section; segment
  3. solar term (one of the 24 divisions of the year in the traditional Chinese calendar)
  4. seasonal festival
  5. (bound form) to economize; to save
  6. (bound form) moral integrity; chastity
  7. classifier for segments: lessons, train wagons, biblical verses etc
  8. knot (nautical miles per hour)