📖 Meaning
To establish authority and change laws or institutions through improper, unorthodox means. It describes using underhanded or heretical methods to seize power and overhaul established systems, bypassing legitimate channels and proper procedures.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the 'Biography of Lord Shang' (商君列传) in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (史记). It was used to criticize Shang Yang, the Legalist reformer of the State of Qin during the Warring States period, for his radical and unorthodox methods in consolidating power and overhauling laws. The Tang dynasty commentator Sima Zhen (司马贞) annotated that '左建' means establishing authority through the 'left-handed path' (左道), i.e., improper means, and '外易' means altering the sovereign's commands outside proper channels. The modern scholar Wang Boxiang (王伯祥) further explained that '左' signifies deviation from correctness and '外' deviation from the proper center, both referring to actions that go against conventional norms.
💡 Example Usage
权臣左建外易，满朝文武敢怒而不敢言。
The powerful minister established authority and altered laws through improper means, leaving the entire court seething with anger but too afraid to speak out.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 左建外易
- Pinyin: zuǒ jiàn wài yì
- Literal Translation: improperly, establish, externally, alter
- Category: Power
- Characters: 4