- lit. peaceful measures before using force (idiom)
- fig. diplomacy before violence; jaw-jaw is better than war-war
Characters
- 先 (先): beforehand; first; earlier; at first; originally; for the time being; for now; (prefix) my late (in referring to deceased relatives older than oneself)
- 礼 (禮): surname Li; abbr. for 禮記|礼记[Li3 ji4], Classic of Rites
- 后 (后): surname Hou
- 兵 (兵): soldiers; a force; an army; weapons; arms; military; warlike; CL:個|个[ge4]
Resources
- Wiktionary: 先礼后兵
- MDBG: 先礼后兵
- Examples with 先礼后兵 on Tatoeba
Examples
No examples. Add one?