变本加厉

Pronunciation: biàn běn jiā lì Literal meaning: Change origin add severity

Origin & Usage

The phrase is Xiao Tong's, from the preface to his anthology: things change (变) from their origin (本) and are heightened (加厉) as they go on. The commentators attach the clause to his examples — the plain cart that becomes the ornamented carriage, water that becomes ice — and he applies the principle to literature in the sentence that follows. Either way he means it neutrally, as an account of how things develop. The phrase has since gone entirely negative, and the reversal is worth knowing, because the modern sense is fixed: it describes behaviour that was already bad and has been repeated harder after somebody objected.

Examples

English: "Instead of improving, his behavior only got worse."

Chinese: 他的行为不但没有改善，反而变本加厉。