后院起火 — Chinese idiom
后院起火
hòu yuàn qǐ huǒ
Traditional: 後院起火
Meaning
- a conflict arises close to home
Character by character
- 后hòuafter; behind, rear; descendants
- 院yuàncourt, yard, courtyard; school
- 起qǐto begin, to initiate; to rise, to stand up
- 火huǒfire, flame; to burn; anger, rage
Idioms sharing a character
- 不甘人后 bù gān rén hòu
- 不甘后人 bù gān hòu rén
- 不顾前后 bù gù qián hòu
- 事后聪明 shì hòu cōng ming
- 先来后到 xiān lái hòu dào
- 先斩后奏 xiān zhǎn hòu zòu
- 先礼后兵 xiān lǐ hòu bīng
- 光前裕后 guāng qián yù hòu
- 前仆后继 qián pū hòu jì
- 前倨后恭 qián jù hòu gōng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.