Chinese idiom · 成语
明火执仗
Meaning
To hold a torch and weapon; blatant crime.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary usageThis expression pictures armed robbers operating with burning torches instead of hiding their actions. The anonymous Ming play Lintong Dou Bao uses the variant 明火持杖 in a bandit's self-introduction: he boasts of robbing people while carrying weapons and lights. Chapter 111 of Honglou Meng likewise discusses whether an incident counts as open armed robbery, using 明火执杖.
These literary attestations preserve the concrete contrast between covert theft and brazen force. The spelling 仗 refers here to weapons. In wider usage the torches and weapons become figurative: the expression condemns wrongdoing carried out openly and without restraint. The cited passages do not establish a single historical robbery as its origin.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
这伙人竟然在街上明火执仗地抢劫，路人立刻报了警。
The gang brazenly carried out an armed robbery in the street, and passersby immediately called the police.
Strongly condemnatory; used for open robbery or similarly blatant wrongdoing.