横征暴敛 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to tax by force and extort levies ; to screw taxes out of the people by force

Character by character

• 横hénghorizontal, across; unreasonable, harsh
• 征zhēngto summon, to recruit; levy, tax; journey; invasio
• 暴bàoviolent, brutal, tyrannical
• 敛liǎnto collect, to extort

Idioms sharing a character

• 妙趣横生 miào qù héng shēng
• 尸横遍野 shī héng biàn yě
• 枝节横生 zhī jié héng shēng
• 横七竖八 héng qī shù bā
• 横刀夺爱 héng dāo duó ài
• 横生枝节 héng shēng zhī jié
• 横眉怒目 héng méi nù mù
• 横空出世 héng kōng chū shì
• 横行无忌 héng xíng wú jì
• 横冲直撞 héng chōng zhí zhuàng

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