DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

新官上任三把火

Mandarin · pinyin xīn guān shàng rèn sān bǎ huǒ

(of a newly appointed official) to make bold changes on assuming office (idiom)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

新: xīn · new, recent, fresh, modern
官: guān · official, public servant
上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
任: rèn · trust to, rely on, appoint; to bear, duty, office; allow
三: sān · three
把: bǎ · hold, take; guard; regard as
火: huǒ · fire, flame; burn; anger, rage

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4–1–3–3 · xin1 guan1 shang4 ren4 san1 ba3 huo3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

7character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

新官上任三把火 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

san1 gun1 soeng5 jam6 saam1 baa2 fo2

Cantonese word readings for 新官上任三把火. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

proverb

a new broom sweeps clean

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack