改邪归正
gǎi xié guī zhèng
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 改邪歸正
To give up bad ways and start living honestly. Used for criminals, addicts or troublemakers who turn over a new leaf.
Từ bỏ con đường sai trái để trở lại làm người lương thiện. Dùng cho người từng phạm tội, sa ngã nay quyết tâm sửa mình.
Register: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 061 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 改 = cải, 归/歸 = quy; etymology of “cải tà quy chính” = 改邪歸正 · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “cải tà quy chính” (cai-ta-quy-chinh). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.
Common questions
What does “改邪归正” mean?
To give up bad ways and start living honestly. Used for criminals, addicts or troublemakers who turn over a new leaf. Literally: leave the crooked, return to the upright
Is “改邪归正” formal or informal?
改邪归正 is generally neutral.