📖 Meaning
惩 means to punish or penalize. The idiom means eliminating evil influences and punishing wicked people. It describes a righteous effort to uphold justice by purging wrongdoing and disciplining evildoers.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the writings of Lu Xun, the leading figure of modern Chinese literature of the Republic of China era. In his essay collection 《集外集》, the piece 《编畜记》 describes a character who loved reading chivalric knight-errant novels and consequently developed a kind of knight-errant madness. He insisted on traveling everywhere to eliminate evil and punish the wicked, but ended up meeting with all kinds of setbacks and humiliations. Lu Xun used the episode to poke gentle irony at naive chivalric fantasies.
💡 Example Usage
他立志当一名警察，除邪惩恶，保护百姓安宁。
He resolved to become a police officer, eliminating evil and punishing the wicked to keep the people safe.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 除邪惩恶
- Pinyin: chú xié chéng è
- Literal Translation: remove, evil, punish, wicked
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4