功高盖主 — Chinese idiom
功高盖主
gōng gāo gài zhǔ
Traditional: 功高蓋主
Meaning
- lit. one's accomplishments overshadow the authority of the sovereign
- fig. to be so influential that one rivals one's leader
Character by character
- 功gōngachievement, good work; merit; service
- 高gāotall, lofty; high, elevated
- 盖gàito cover, to hide, to protect
- 主zhǔto own; to host; master; host; lord
Idioms sharing a character
- 事倍功半 shì bèi gōng bàn
- 事半功倍 shì bàn gōng bèi
- 前功尽弃 qián gōng jìn qì
- 功不可没 gōng bù kě mò
- 功名利禄 gōng míng lì lù
- 功完行满 gōng wán xíng mǎn
- 功德圆满 gōng dé yuán mǎn
- 功德无量 gōng dé wú liàng
- 功成不居 gōng chéng bù jū
- 功成名就 gōng chéng míng jiù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.