披荆斩棘 — Chinese idiom
披荆斩棘
pī jīng zhǎn jí
Traditional: 披荊斬棘
Meaning
- lit. to cut one's way through thistles and thorns
- fig. to overcome all obstacles on the way
- to break through hardships
- to blaze a new trail
Character by character
- 披pīto wear; to split, to crack
- 荆jīngthorns, brambles; surname
- 斩zhǎnto chop, to cut, to sever; to behead
- 棘jíjujube tree; thorns, brambles
Idioms sharing a character
- 所向披靡 suǒ xiàng pī mǐ
- 披沙拣金 pī shā jiǎn jīn
- 披肝沥胆 pī gān lì dǎn
- 披头散发 pī tóu sàn fà
- 荆棘载途 jīng jí zài tú
- 荆榛满目 jīng zhēn mǎn mù
- 负荆请罪 fù jīng qǐng zuì
- 先斩后奏 xiān zhǎn hòu zòu
- 斩草除根 zhǎn cǎo chú gēn
- 斩钉截铁 zhǎn dīng jié tiě
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.