burn the bridge after crossing it(guò hé chāi qiáo)

burn the bridge after crossing it

Chinese idiom, Pinyin is Gu ò h é ch ā IQI á o, meaning that when you cross the river, you tear down the bridge. The metaphor is to kick away the people who have helped themselves after reaching the goal. From Li Kui's negative spine.

The origin of Idioms

Yuan · Lian Jin's "Li Kui negative spine" the third discount: "you can't push the boat with the current, but I'm not allowed to cross the river and demolish the bridge."

Idiom usage

It has a derogatory meaning. Example 1: the biography of Chuli tiemu'er in the history of the Yuan Dynasty: Wang Xiaoyou, the official in charge of the book, said: "participation in politics can be regarded as a bridge breaker.". (2) the fourth part of Zhou Erfu's morning in Shanghai: "such a big thing has not been discussed with business elders by Feng Yongxiang, isn't it?" (3) Lao She's Camel Xiangzi 14: Xiangzi was so tired that the old man turned his face and didn't recognize others. They were unfair for Xiangzi.

Idiom story

Liu Bei is defeated in Changbanpo. Zhao Yun finds Liu Bei's wife and children who have been scattered. Cao Cao also went to the changban bridge, and saw Zhang Fei standing on his head with a beard, staring at his round eyes and holding a spear. He was afraid of falling into the trap. Zhang Fei's three roars scared the Xia Houjie who was beside Cao Cao to death. He scared off a million powerful soldiers of Cao Cao. There is a poem praising: "at the end of the bridge in changban, the murderous spirit is alive, and the horizontal gun immediately opens its eyes. It was like a thunderclap. I retreated a million soldiers from the Cao family. " Zhang Fei ordered the bridge to be broken, and then went after Liu Bei. Cao Cao sent someone to inquire after his retreat and learned that "Zhang Fei has broken the bridge and left." He ordered his subordinates to build three floating bridges and chase them quickly.

Idioms and allusions

The Minister of Yuan Dynasty, Cheri tiemu'er, was shrewd and capable in dealing with official affairs and good at making decisions. One year, when he was in Zhejiang Province, he happened to hold the imperial examination in the provincial capital. He witnessed the exam, which cost a lot of money from the government to the examinees, and inevitably led to malpractice. he secretly made up his mind to urge the imperial court to abolish this system when he took control. Later, when he was promoted to the position of deputy prime minister, he told Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty to abolish the imperial examination system. China's imperial examination system has been implemented for more than 700 years since the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It is a very important thing to abolish it, which has caused great repercussions in the court. Master Boyan expressed support, but many opposed. A royal censor strongly opposed the abolition of the imperial examination system. He asked Emperor Shun to punish cheritimu'er. Although Emperor Shun was fatuous, he was in favor of abolishing the imperial examination system. Therefore, he not only did not support the censor, but demoted him to other places as an official. Before long, he ordered people to draft an imperial edict to abolish the imperial examination system and prepare to issue it. Before the book was issued, Xu Youwang, who was slightly lower than Pingzhang, came out to oppose the abolition of the imperial examination system. He told Boyan, "if the imperial examination system is abolished, all the talented people in the world will resent it." Boyan said tit for tat: "if we continue to implement the imperial examination system, there will be more people who are corrupt and pervert the law in the world." Xu Youwang retorted: "when the imperial examination system was not implemented, there were not many people who were corrupt and perverted the law." Boyan satirized him and said, "in my opinion, there were too few useful people among the people who won the imperial examination, and only one person who participated in politics could be appointed." Xu Youwang was unconvinced and cited many senior officials who won the imperial examination at that time to refute Bo Er. Boyan of course will not change his point of view, so the two argued very fiercely. The next day, Wen and Wu of the Manchu Dynasty were called to listen to the imperial edict issued by the emperor to abolish the imperial examination system. Xu Youwang was insultingly informed to listen and read at the head of the class. It seems that the emperor wanted this opponent to understand the imperial edict. Xu Youwang was very reluctant, but he was afraid of offending the emperor and suffering disaster, so he had to kneel down in front of all the officials to listen to the imperial edict. After reading the imperial edict, all the officials returned to the government one after another, and Xu Youwang bowed his head and walked unhappily. A royal censor named Puhua came up to him and sneered at him in his ear, saying, "you're a bridge breaker now. This means that you Xu participated in politics by taking the imperial examination as an official. Now when you read out the emperor's imperial edict on Abolishing the imperial examination system, you kneel in the front, as if you were the leader of abolishing the imperial examination system, just like a person who demolishes the bridge after crossing the bridge. After hearing this, Xu Youwang felt ashamed and resentful. He quickened his pace and left. After that, on the pretext of illness, he never went to court again.

Chinese PinYin : guò hé chāi qiáo