大破大立

Mandarin · pinyin dà pò dà lì

Meanings

  1. to destroy the old and establish the new (idiom)
  2. radical transformation
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Characters in this entry

大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
破
pò · break, ruin, destroy; rout
立
lì · stand; let stand; establish, set
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–4 · da4 po4 da4 li4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daai6 po3 daai6 laap6

Cantonese word readings for 大破大立. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

大破大立 · da4 po4 da4 li4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 28,293
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record大破大立 大破大立 [da4 po4 da4 li4] /to destroy the old and establish the new (idiom)/radical transformation/