替天行道
tì tiān xíng dào
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
To carry out justice on Heaven's behalf: to punish the wicked yourself when the authorities will not. The slogan of outlaw heroes in old novels; today often used half in jest for vigilante justice.
Thay trời thực thi lẽ phải: tự mình trừng trị kẻ ác khi quan lại, pháp luật không làm. Là khẩu hiệu của các hảo hán trong tiểu thuyết xưa; nay dùng, nhiều khi nửa đùa, cho việc tự ý ra tay trừng phạt cái xấu.
Register: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 062 (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 行 = hành; etymology of “thế thiên hành đạo” = 替天行道 · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “thế thiên hành đạo” (the-thien-hanh-dao). 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 “替天行道” mean?
To carry out justice on Heaven's behalf: to punish the wicked yourself when the authorities will not. The slogan of outlaw heroes in old novels; today often used half in jest for vigilante justice. Literally: on heaven's behalf, carry out the Way
Is “替天行道” formal or informal?
替天行道 is generally neutral.