先礼后兵 — Chinese idiom
先礼后兵
xiān lǐ hòu bīng
Traditional: 先禮後兵
Meaning
- try persuasion before resorting to force
Character by character
- 先xiānfirst, former, previous
- 礼lǐcourtesy, manners, social customs
- 后hòuafter; behind, rear; descendants
- 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
Idioms sharing a character
- 一马当先 yī mǎ dāng xiān
- 先来后到 xiān lái hòu dào
- 先入为主 xiān rù wéi zhǔ
- 先斩后奏 xiān zhǎn hòu zòu
- 先发制人 xiān fā zhì rén
- 先睹为快 xiān dǔ wéi kuài
- 捷足先登 jié zú xiān dēng
- 敢为人先 gǎn wéi rén xiān
- 未卜先知 wèi bǔ xiān zhī
- 溘先朝露 kè xiān zhāo lù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.