📖 Meaning
To make a law that ultimately brings harm to oneself. It refers to a situation where a person's own rules or actions backfire and cause their own downfall. The idiom describes someone who suffers the consequences of their own designs.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Records of the Grand Historian (《史记·商君列传》), recounting the story of Shang Yang, a Legalist reformer of the State of Qin during the Warring States period. After Shang Yang's reforms, he fell out of favor and tried to flee. When he sought lodging at an inn, the innkeeper refused him, citing Shang Yang's own law that required all guests to carry identification. Shang Yang sighed deeply, lamenting that the very laws he created had become his own undoing. This gave rise to the expression of suffering from one's own legislation.
💡 Example Usage
他制定的苛刻考勤制度最终作法自毙，自己因迟到被扣光了工资。
The harsh attendance policy he created ultimately backfired on him—he lost his entire salary to his own penalties for being late.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 作法自毙
- Pinyin: zuò fǎ zì bì
- Literal Translation: make, law, self, die
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4