📖 Meaning
To dismantle the old and establish the new. It describes the act of abolishing outdated systems, ideas, or customs in order to create fresh replacements. The idiom emphasizes the pairing of destruction and construction as two inseparable sides of meaningful reform.
📜 Origin Story
Unlike many classical chengyu, this idiom has no single literary origin and arose as a modern political and social slogan. It gained widespread currency during the reform movements of the twentieth century, when revolutionaries and reformers urged the Chinese people to abandon feudal traditions and build a new society. Its structure mirrors the classical four-character pattern, echoing older reform-minded idioms like 革故鼎新 and 除旧布新, while its vocabulary is straightforward modern Chinese. Today it is commonly used in discussions of institutional, technological, and cultural change.
💡 Example Usage
这项改革体现了破旧立新的精神。
This reform embodies the spirit of breaking with the old and establishing the new.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 破旧立新
- Pinyin: pò jiù lì xīn
- Literal Translation: break, old, establish, new
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4