📖 Meaning
A metaphor for achieving victory by secretly replacing an opponent's banners with one's own, causing confusion and collapse from within. More broadly, it describes defeating rivals through clever substitution or deception. The idiom originates from military strategy.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom traces back to the Battle of Jingxing during the Chu-Han Contention in the early Han Dynasty. The brilliant strategist Han Xin (韩信), serving Liu Bang, led a vastly outnumbered force against the Zhao army. He dispatched light cavalry to sneak behind Zhao lines and replace Zhao banners with Han banners. When Zhao soldiers saw Han flags flying everywhere behind them, they believed their camp had fallen and panicked into retreat, delivering Han Xin a decisive victory. The phrase derives from the fuller expression '拔赵帜易汉帜' (pull up Zhao banners and replace them with Han banners).
💡 Example Usage
他在商战中拔帜树帜，以巧妙策略击败了竞争对手。
In the business war, he pulled up the enemy's banners and planted his own, defeating his competitors with a clever strategy.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 拔帜树帜
- Pinyin: bá zhì shù zhì
- Literal Translation: pull up banner, plant banner
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4