上行下效 — Chinese idiom
上行下效
shàng xíng xià xiào
Traditional: 上行下傚
Meaning
- subordinates follow the example of their superiors
Character by character
- 上shàngabove, on top, superior; to go up; to attend; prev
- 行xíngto go, to walk, to move; professional
- 下xiàbelow, underneath; inferior; to bring down; next
- 效xiàoresult, effect; effective
Idioms sharing a character
- 上下其手 shàng xià qí shǒu
- 上天入地 shàng tiān rù dì
- 上当受骗 shàng dàng shòu piàn
- 力争上游 lì zhēng shàng yóu
- 巴高望上 bā gāo wàng shàng
- 引鬼上门 yǐn guǐ shàng mén
- 后来居上 hòu lái jū shàng
- 成千上万 chéng qiān shàng wàn
- 承上起下 chéng shàng qǐ xià
- 拾级而上 shè jí ér shàng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.