陟罚臧否 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to evaluate the merits and demerits of; (esp. in formal, ethical or societal contexts) to critique; to judge

Character by character

• 陟zhìto climb; to advance; progress
• 罚fápenalty, fine; to punish, to penalize
• 臧zānggood, right; generous; to command
• 否pǐno, not, un-; final particle

Idioms sharing a character

• 否极泰来 pǐ jí tài lái

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.