







成也萧何,败也萧何 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “Success or failure, both are attributed to the same person”. Referring to a situation where an individual is responsible for both the favorable and unfavorable outcomes of a matter. Literally, “Success due to Xiao He, failure also due to Xiao He”.
Towards the end of the Qin Dynasty, Han Xin, after failing to gain recognition under Xiang Yu, turned to Liu Bang. Feeling unvalued, he left. When Xiao He learned of this, he pursued and brought Han Xin back during the night. Liu Bang then made Han Xin the King of Qi.
However, fearing Han Xin might revolt, Liu Bang later demoted him to Marquis of Huaiyin and stripped him of his military authority.
While Liu Bang was personally campaigning against Chen Xi, Empress Lü asked Xiao He to devise a plan to trick Han Xin into Weiyang Palace, where he was then executed.

Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →
Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →
Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →
Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →成也萧何,败也萧何 (chéng yě xiāo hé , bài yě xiāo hé) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “Success or failure, both are attributed to the same person”.
成也萧何,败也萧何 is pronounced chéng yě xiāo hé , bài yě xiāo hé in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 成也萧何,败也萧何 means “Success due to Xiao He, failure also due to Xiao He”. It is used to mean “Success or failure, both are attributed to the same person”.
成也萧何,败也萧何 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
萧何:汉高祖刘邦的丞相。成事由于萧何,败事也由于萧何。比喻事情的成功和失败都是由这一个人造成的。