📖 Meaning
Originally meant acting against common sense and resorting to any means necessary. It now mostly refers to actions that run counter to the trend of the times or the will of the people, describing outrageous or tyrannical behavior.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the 'Records of the Grand Historian' (史记), in the biography of Wu Zixu (伍子胥). After King Ping of Chu killed his father and brother, Wu Zixu fled to the state of Wu and later led its army to destroy Chu. To vent his rage, he exhumed King Ping's corpse and whipped it three hundred times. When his friend Shen Baoxu reproached him for going too far, Wu Zixu replied, 'My day is late and my road is long, so I act perversely and take extreme measures.' The phrase came to describe desperate, unconventional, or outrageous actions that defy all norms.
💡 Example Usage
历史证明，任何倒行逆施的统治者最终都会被人民推翻。
History has proven that any ruler who acts against the will of the people will ultimately be overthrown by them.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 倒行逆施
- Pinyin: dào xíng nì shī
- Literal Translation: reverse, proceed, contrary, apply
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4