







小儿破贼 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “refers to young people achieving great accomplishments or making significant contributions at an early age; excelling young”. Literally, “Youngsters defeat bandits”.
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Fu Jian, a leader of the Di ethnic group, commanded a massive army of a million soldiers to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Xie An was tasked with leading 80,000 troops to counter the invasion.
He demonstrated excellent command, often securing major victories against Fu Jian's forces.
On one occasion, while Xie An was playing chess with a guest, Xie Xuan brought him an urgent victory report from the front lines. Xie An read it silently, showing no outward reaction.
After the chess game concluded, the guest inquired about the battle's outcome from Xie Xuan. Xie Xuan calmly replied, 'The youngsters have soundly defeated the bandits.'

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Open the tool →小儿破贼 (xiǎo ér pò zéi) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “refers to young people achieving great accomplishments or making significant contributions at an early age; excelling young”.
小儿破贼 is pronounced xiǎo ér pò zéi in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 小儿破贼 means “Youngsters defeat bandits”. It is used to mean “refers to young people achieving great accomplishments or making significant contributions at an early age; excelling young”.
小儿破贼 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
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