







眼中拔钉 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to remove someone who is deeply hated or a great nuisance”. A thorn in one's side/flesh. Literally, “Pull a nail from one's eye”.
During the Five Dynasties period, Zhao Zaili, a commander of the Xiaojie Army in the Later Tang Dynasty, rebelled against Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang. He supported Emperor Mingzong, who subsequently appointed him as the Jiedushi (military governor) of Yicheng Commandery.
Zhao Zaili abused his authority, oppressed the populace, and frequently extorted wealth from them. When he led his army to attack the Khitans, whom people at the time considered a 'thorn in the eye' (眼中之钉), he demanded a 'nail-pulling fee' of 1000 cash from each resident of Songzhou, with those failing to pay facing execution.

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Open the tool →眼中拔钉 (yǎn zhōng bá dīng) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to remove someone who is deeply hated or a great nuisance”.
眼中拔钉 is pronounced yǎn zhōng bá dīng in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 眼中拔钉 means “Pull a nail from one's eye”. It is used to mean “to remove someone who is deeply hated or a great nuisance”.
眼中拔钉 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
比喻除去心中最痛恨的人。