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

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.

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