南征北讨 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• war on all sides ; fighting from all four quarters

Character by character

• 南nánsouth; southern; southward
• 征zhēngto summon, to recruit; levy, tax; journey; invasio
• 北běinorth; northern; northward
• 讨tǎoto haggle, to discuss; to demand, to ask for

Idioms sharing a character

• 南征北伐 nán zhēng běi fá
• 南征北战 nán zhēng běi zhàn
• 南箕北斗 Nán jī Běi dǒu
• 南辕北辙 nán yuán běi zhé
• 寿比南山 shòu bǐ Nán Shān
• 大江南北 Dà jiāng nán běi
• 天南地北 tiān nán dì běi
• 终南捷径 Zhōng nán jié jìng
• 御驾亲征 yù jià qīn zhēng
• 征名责实 zhēng míng zé shí

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