📖 Meaning
To follow the same disastrous path that someone else has already taken. It is a metaphor for ignoring past lessons and repeating the mistakes others have made. The idiom warns against failing to heed the warnings left by others' failures.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the 'Biography of Jia Yi' in the Book of Han (汉书·贾谊传), written during the Eastern Han dynasty. Jia Yi was a brilliant scholar-statesman of the Western Han who advised Emperor Wen on governance. The original text states '前车覆，后车诫' — 'when the cart ahead overturns, the cart behind should take warning' — urging rulers to learn from the downfall of previous dynasties. Over time this evolved into the idiom '蹈其覆辙', emphasizing the folly of treading the very rut where others before you crashed.
💡 Example Usage
明知前任已因此失败，他却仍蹈其覆辙，实在令人惋惜。
Knowing full well that his predecessor failed for this very reason, he still repeated the same mistake — truly regrettable.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 蹈其覆辙
- Pinyin: dǎo qì fù zhé
- Literal Translation: step on, its, overturned, rut
- Category: Wisdom
- Characters: 4