改弦易辙 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• change of string, move out of rut ; dramatic change of direction
• to dance to a different tune

Character by character

• 改gǎito alter, to change, to improve, to remodel
• 弦xiánbow string; string instrument; hypotenuse
• 易yìto change; to exchange, to trade; simple, easy
• 辙zhétrack, rut; stuck in a rut

Idioms sharing a character

• 一改故辙 yī gǎi gù zhé
• 幡然改图 fān rán gǎi tú
• 改过自新 gǎi guò zì xīn
• 改邪归正 gǎi xié guī zhèng
• 改头换面 gǎi tóu huàn miàn
• 朝令夕改 zhāo lìng xī gǎi
• 朝闻夕改 zhāo wén xī gǎi
• 朝过夕改 zhāo guò xī gǎi
• 死不改悔 sǐ bù gǎi huǐ
• 痛改前非 tòng gǎi qián fēi

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.