起承转合 — Chinese idiom
起承转合
qǐ chéng zhuǎn hé
Traditional: 起承轉合
Meaning
- four-part structure of a composition: introduction, elucidation, pivot (shift in perspective), synthesis; (fig.) coherent structural progression in writing, narrative, or any unfolding process
Character by character
- 起qǐto begin, to initiate; to rise, to stand up
- 承chéngto undertake, to bear, to accept a duty; inheritan
- 转zhuǎnto move, to convey; to turn, to revolve, to circle
- 合héto combine, to join, to unite; to gather
Idioms sharing a character
- 一病不起 yī bìng bù qǐ
- 另起炉灶 lìng qǐ lú zào
- 大起大落 dà qǐ dà luò
- 崛地而起 jué dì ér qǐ
- 平地起家 píng dì qǐ jiā
- 后起之秀 hòu qǐ zhī xiù
- 后院起火 hòu yuàn qǐ huǒ
- 思潮起伏 sī cháo qǐ fú
- 承上起下 chéng shàng qǐ xià
- 投袂而起 tóu mèi ér qǐ
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.