先斩后奏 — Chinese idiom
先斩后奏
xiān zhǎn hòu zòu
Traditional: 先斬後奏
Meaning
- (lit.) execute sb first, then report to the emperor
- (fig.) to act first and report later; to take action without prior approval
Character by character
- 先xiānfirst, former, previous
- 斩zhǎnto chop, to cut, to sever; to behead
- 后hòuafter; behind, rear; descendants
- 奏zòuto play; to memorialize; to report
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
- 先发制人 xiān fā zhì rén
- 先睹为快 xiān dǔ wéi kuài
- 先礼后兵 xiān lǐ hòu bīng
- 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.