前车之鉴
- Literal
- the mirror of the cart ahead
- Figurative
- Someone else's mistake, or one's own earlier one, taken as a warning so the same thing isn't repeated.
Where does 前车之鉴 come from?
"The cart ahead tips over; the one behind takes warning" was already an old proverb when Jia Yi, an adviser to Emperor Wen of the Han dynasty, quoted it in his memorial on government, preserved in the biography devoted to him in the 《汉书》. His argument ran like this: the older dynasties lasted because what they had done was known and could be learned from, while the Qin empire collapsed in a hurry and left its wheel ruts in plain sight. If the new government failed to steer around them, Jia Yi warned, the cart behind would tip over too. That warning is what the idiom preserves: the mishap of the one ahead is the mirror you check yourself in.
Source (出处): 《汉书·贾谊传》
How is 前车之鉴 used? Two examples
- 这次事故要成为前车之鉴，我们必须重新检查安全流程。
This accident has to serve as a warning; we need to go back over the whole safety procedure.
- 有了上次的前车之鉴，这回大家都小心多了。
With last time as a warning, everyone is being a lot more careful this round.
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