Zhè piān lùnwén shì dōngpīnxīcòu chūlai de, méi shénme xīnyì.
This paper is cobbled together from bits and pieces — there's nothing original in it.
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history
From 《红楼梦》 chapter 8 (Cao Xueqin, Qing dynasty), where a family 「东拼西凑」 twenty-four taels of silver to afford a proper introduction gift. The phrase's everyday money-scraping sense was already firmly in place by the mid-Qing.
usage
Two common uses: (1) literal — scraping together money/materials, usually with effort; (2) critical — describing hastily assembled work (essays, speeches) that lacks coherence.
