平反

píngfǎn

verb #34,488

Meanings

1 to redress an injustice
2 to rehabilitate (someone wrongly accused)
3 to clear someone's name

Characters

to make level, balance

to overturn, reverse

Examples

HSK 7-9

他被冤枉了二十年，最后才得到平反。

Tā bèi yuānwang le èrshí nián, zuìhòu cái dédào píngfǎn.

He was wrongly accused for twenty years before finally being exonerated.

HSK 7-9

政府为受害者平反昭雪。

Zhèngfǔ wèi shòuhàizhě píngfǎn zhāoxuě.

The government cleared the names of the victims.

Tips

history

Politically loaded in modern Chinese: post-1978 the CCP carried out mass 平反 of those wrongly punished during the Cultural Revolution and earlier political campaigns - the term came to mean 'official posthumous or belated rehabilitation' as much as 'redress an injustice'.

register

Formal/legal - pair with 冤案 (yuān'àn, miscarriage of justice) or 昭雪 (zhāoxuě, to clear). Not used for everyday disputes.

Stroke Order

平 píng

反 fǎn