先 先
斩 斬
后 後
奏 奏
- lit. first execute the criminal, then report it to the emperor (idiom)
- fig. to take some drastic action without the prior approval of higher authorities
Info
- Wiktionary: 先斩后奏
- MDBG: 先斩后奏
- Examples with 先斩后奏 on Tatoeba
- Percentile: 2 (higher is more common)
- Tags: chengyu