To act in a way that defeats your own goal
The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.
A traveller said he was going to Chu, in the south, while his carriage rolled north. Told he was going the wrong way, he answered that his horses were excellent, his driver skilled and his money plentiful. Every one of those advantages only got him further from Chu.
Source: 《战国策》Strategies of the Warring States, c. 1st century BC
The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.
Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.
南辕北辙 is pronounced nán yuán běi zhé and means to act in a way that defeats your own goal. Literally it says "shafts pointing south, tracks running north" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《战国策》Strategies of the Warring States, c. 1st century BC. A traveller said he was going to Chu, in the south, while his carriage rolled north. Told he was going the wrong way, he answered that his horses were excellent, his driver skilled and his money plentiful. Every one of those advantages only got him further from Chu.
nán yuán běi zhé. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.
南 (nán) South, 北 (běi) North, 辙 (zhé) Track (rut). These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the intermediate band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 南辕北辙 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
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