引火烧身

引火燒身

yǐnhuǒshāoshēn

idiom #33,735

Meanings

1 to draw fire upon oneself; to bring trouble on one's own head
2 to expose one's own faults openly to invite criticism (positive sense)

Characters

to draw; to lead

Examples

他乱说话，结果引火烧身。

Tā luàn shuōhuà, jiéguǒ yǐnhuǒshāoshēn.

He spoke carelessly and ended up bringing trouble on himself.

会议上他主动检讨自己的错误，算是引火烧身。

Huìyì shàng tā zhǔdòng jiǎntǎo zìjǐ de cuòwù, suànshì yǐnhuǒshāoshēn.

At the meeting he proactively owned up to his mistakes — a kind of self-exposing criticism.

Tips

usage

Two quite different senses: (1) commonly negative — you stupidly bring disaster on yourself; (2) in a political-criticism context, a positive 自我批评 (self-critique) sense meaning 'to openly expose one's own faults for the collective to address.' Context decides.

Stroke Order

引 yǐn

火 huǒ

烧 shāo

身 shēn