引火烧身

引火燒身

yǐnhuǒ-shāoshēn

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

HSK 3

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.

HSK 7-9

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