朝令夕改

zhāolìngxīgǎi
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 orders given in the morning are changed by evening
  2. 2 to make frequent, unpredictable changes in policy

Examples

Zhèngcè zhāolìngxīgǎi, ràng qǐyè wúsuǒshìcóng.
Policy changes morning and night leave businesses with no idea what to follow.
Guǎnlǐzhě zhāolìngxīgǎi, yuángōng hěn nán zhíxíng.
When managers keep flipping their orders, staff find them impossible to carry out.

Tips

history
·》 (drawing on Chao Cuo's memorial to the Han throne): 不时 — "taxes are collected at odd times; decrees issued in the morning are changed by evening". A 2,000-year-old complaint about unstable government.
mistakes
here reads zhāo ("morning"), not cháo ("court; dynasty"). Parallel to (xī, "evening") — morning/evening, not court/evening.

Stroke Order

cháo
lìng
gǎi