CYChengyu Dictionary

Chengyu meaning

过河拆桥 (guò hé chāi qiáo)

to discard help after it has served its purpose

Plain Answer

Source: Traditional bridge-crossing metaphor in Chinese moral criticism. Treated here as classical story; read it first as a sentence-level judgment.

Core meaning: 过河拆桥 means to discard help after it has served its purpose: Used when someone abandons, betrays, or denies the support that helped them once they no longer need it. The tone is strongly critical.

Practice this meaningRead the story
Label
negative / common critical
Best objects
project betrayal, business partnership, friendship obligation
Do not use when
Do not use 过河拆桥 for a scene that only shares one surface word with the meaning. If the problem is closer to 以心换心 or the contrast points toward 风雨同舟, choose that nearby entry instead of stretching this one.

Use: Use 过河拆桥 when the project betrayal sentence shows the object, cause, and tone clearly. Avoid: Avoid 过河拆桥 when the sentence only sounds related, lacks evidence, or needs a plainer word.

project betrayal项目成功后他立刻否认伙伴的贡献，真是过河拆桥。Xiàngmù chénggōng hòu tā lìkè fǒurèn huǒbàn de gòngxiàn, zhēnshi guòhéchāiqiáo.After the project succeeded, he denied his partner's contribution; that is discarding the bridge after crossing.

Next: Read the examples, then compare 以心换心 before practicing 过河拆桥 in the focused quiz.

Often studied with: 以心换心, 因果报应, 唇亡齿寒

Read This First

过河拆桥 is introduced here through a classical story tradition retold for modern learners; the source label is Traditional bridge-crossing metaphor in Chinese moral criticism, and the page separates that background from modern sentence choice.

过河拆桥 means to discard help after it has served its purpose. The important first reading is Used when someone abandons, betrays, or denies the support that helped them once they no longer need it. The tone is strongly critical. This is a negative phrase in normal use, so the sentence must show the judgment clearly.

Use 过河拆桥 when the object, cause, and tone match examples such as project betrayal, business partnership, friendship obligation; then compare 以心换心 and 因果报应 before writing your own sentence.

Avoid 过河拆桥 when the sentence only shares a broad topic, when the tone would be unfair to the person being described, or when a plainer word would be clearer than a chengyu.

Start with this cue: project betrayal plus a visible reason.

Meaning and Translation Notes

Used when someone abandons, betrays, or denies the support that helped them once they no longer need it. The tone is strongly critical.

Literal meaning

cross the river and tear down the bridge

  • 过 / cross
  • 河 / river
  • 拆 / dismantle
  • 桥 / bridge

English equivalents

  • discard someone after using their help plain

    Best for explicit moral criticism.

  • burn bridges after crossing them near

    Close in image but may need explanation in English.

  • forget the people who helped you plain

    Natural in relationship or workplace examples.

How To Use It

Use 过河拆桥 when the reader can see why to discard help after it has served its purpose is the exact judgment, not just the topic. A strong sentence names the actor, the thing being judged, and the evidence that makes this idiom more precise than an ordinary adjective.

  • Use it when help is used and then the helper or connection is rejected.
  • It is morally sharp and can sound accusatory.
  • It works in friendship, business, politics, and workplace contexts.

Common Mistakes

Do not use 过河拆桥 for a scene that only shares one surface word with the meaning. If the problem is closer to 以心换心 or the contrast points toward 风雨同舟, choose that nearby entry instead of stretching this one.

  • Do not use it for normal independence after learning a skill.
  • Do not use it unless the earlier help or bridge is visible.

Wrong Use Clinic

The most useful check is often the phrase you should reject.

  1. The learner wants to sound more idiomatic but has only a broad topic match for 过河拆桥.

    The sentence drops in 过河拆桥 without showing the cause, object, or tone that would make the idiom necessary.

    Fix: Rewrite the sentence so the evidence for to discard help after it has served its purpose appears before or after the phrase.

    过河拆桥 fails in this case because a chengyu is not decoration; it must name the exact judgment the sentence is making.

    Compare yi xin huan xin

  2. The learner wants to say the opposite or a neighboring idea and chooses 过河拆桥 because it feels familiar.

    The sentence uses 过河拆桥, but the described situation points to a different cause, time point, or social attitude.

    Fix: Compare the sentence with 风雨同舟 and choose the phrase whose boundary explains the situation with less force.

    过河拆桥 becomes misleading when the nearby phrase would identify the real problem more cleanly.

    Compare feng yu tong zhou

  3. The learner has the right meaning area for 过河拆桥 but ignores register and emotional force.

    The sentence uses 过河拆桥 directly about a person, yet gives no softening context or evidence for such a moral criticism judgment.

    Fix: Add the observed behavior first, or choose 因果报应 if the sentence needs a gentler learning path.

    过河拆桥 can sound heavier than a short English gloss. The reader needs enough context to see why the tone is fair.

    Compare yin guo bao ying

  4. The learner remembers the origin image of 过河拆桥 but applies it to the wrong object.

    The sentence names an image or story detail, but the real object being judged would be better explained by another chengyu.

    Fix: Name the object first. If the object points toward 海纳百川, use that contrast instead.

    过河拆桥 should follow the judgment, not the most memorable image. Story memory is useful only when it supports the sentence-level decision.

    Compare hai na bai chuan

Chengyu Often Studied Together

Use these clusters to build sentence-level judgment instead of memorizing a single gloss.

  1. 过河拆桥 with nearby learner choices

    过河拆桥 is often studied beside 以心换心 and 因果报应 because the words share a theme while asking the learner to judge a different cause, tone, or timing.

    老师先让学生解释过河拆桥，再比较以心换心和因果报应，这样不会只凭英文近义词选答案。

    yi xin huan xinyin guo bao ying

  2. 过河拆桥 with contrast checks

    过河拆桥 becomes easier to use when it is contrasted with 唇亡齿寒 and 风雨同舟; the contrast forces the writer to decide whether the sentence is praise, warning, correction, or neutral description.

    写作练习里先用过河拆桥造句，再换成唇亡齿寒，观察判断方向怎样改变。

    chun wang chi hanfeng yu tong zhouyi xin huan xin

  3. 过河拆桥 in example-building drills

    过河拆桥 should be practiced with 以心换心 and 唇亡齿寒 because examples reveal whether the learner is choosing by meaning, tone, or only by a remembered image.

    课堂上先用过河拆桥写一个有证据的句子，再换成以心换心或唇亡齿寒说明判断为什么改变。

    yi xin huan xinchun wang chi hanyin guo bao ying

  4. 过河拆桥 in story and source review

    过河拆桥 links best with 因果报应 and 风雨同舟 when the learner is checking whether a source image truly supports a modern sentence.

    复习出处时，不要只背过河拆桥的故事，还要比较因果报应，看哪个成语更能解释现代句子。

    yin guo bao yingfeng yu tong zhouyi xin huan xin

Learner Guide

Use these notes when deciding whether this chengyu fits a real sentence.

Use guo he chai qiao when the sentence has two stages: someone receives help, then later discards or denies the helper after the goal is reached. The help can be emotional, financial, political, professional, or logistical.

Discard someone after using their help is clear English. Burn bridges after crossing them keeps the image but can sound like a different English expression. Forget the people who helped you is softer.

Do not use this chengyu for normal independence. A student who no longer needs a tutor is not necessarily guo he chai qiao if respect and gratitude remain.

Before using the phrase, identify the river, the bridge, and the dismantling. What difficulty was crossed? Who made crossing possible? What action shows rejection after success?

Before using 过河拆桥, write the plain English idea first. If the plain sentence already says everything naturally, the chengyu must add a sharper judgment, cultural image, or tone. If it does not add one of those, leave the plain wording alone.

A good 过河拆桥 sentence contains an object and evidence. The object is the person, plan, habit, result, or scene being judged. The evidence is the reason the phrase fits. Without both parts, the idiom may look learned but feel empty.

Compare 过河拆桥 with 以心换心 and 风雨同舟 before finalizing a sentence. The goal is not to memorize synonyms; the goal is to reject the wrong phrase for a clear reason. That rejection is what turns recognition into usable knowledge.

When teaching or self-reviewing 过河拆桥, ask the learner to mark source, meaning, use case, wrong case, and one example. If any mark is missing, return to the entry section that supplies it rather than guessing from the headword alone.

project betrayal is the first test zone for 过河拆桥, but it is not the only possible use. Before using the phrase, name the speaker, the object being judged, and the nearest tested context: project betrayal, business partnership, friendship obligation, usage boundary, misuse boundary, comparison check, context setup, teacher correction. Then choose among discard someone after using their help, burn bridges after crossing them, forget the people who helped you as translation candidates and reject at least one candidate out loud. A useful final check is to compare the sentence with yi-xin-huan-xin and yin-guo-bao-ying; if one of those nearby entries explains the situation with less strain, the nearby phrase is the better learner choice.

When 过河拆桥 is translated as discard someone after using their help, the English should still preserve the phrase's tone. Keep moral criticism and the caution use area visible when the audience is still learning the idiom. If a short translation hides the warning "Do not use it for normal independence after learning a skill.", choose a fuller English explanation instead. This matters because the strongest chengyu pages should help readers decide when not to use the most convenient English equivalent.

Example Sentences

Each example labels the situation so you can choose a natural English translation.

project betrayal

项目成功后他立刻否认伙伴的贡献，真是过河拆桥。

Xiàngmù chénggōng hòu tā lìkè fǒurèn huǒbàn de gòngxiàn, zhēnshi guòhéchāiqiáo.

After the project succeeded, he denied his partner's contribution; that is discarding the bridge after crossing.

business partnership

公司不能在拿到资源后就对合作方过河拆桥。

Gōngsī bùnéng zài nádào zīyuán hòu jiù duì hézuòfāng guòhéchāiqiáo.

The company must not discard its partner once it has obtained the resources.

friendship obligation

朋友帮你度过难关，你不能过河拆桥。

Péngyǒu bāng nǐ dùguò nánguān, nǐ bùnéng guòhéchāiqiáo.

If a friend helped you through difficulty, you cannot forget them once the crisis is over.

usage boundary

只有原因和语气都清楚时，这句话才适合用过河拆桥。

zhi you yuan yin he yu qi dou qing chu shi zhe ju hua cai shi he yong guo he chai qiao

Only use 过河拆桥 when the cause and tone are both clear, not just because the topic feels nearby.

misuse boundary

如果只是普通情况，不要为了显得有文化而硬说过河拆桥。

ru guo zhi shi pu tong qing kuang bu yao wei le xian de you wen hua er ying shuo guo he chai qiao

If the situation is ordinary, do not force 过河拆桥 just to make the sentence sound more cultured.

comparison check

比较近义成语以后，再决定这里是不是应该写过河拆桥。

bi jiao jin yi cheng yu yi hou zai jue ding zhe li shi bu shi ying gai xie guo he chai qiao

After comparing nearby chengyu, decide whether 过河拆桥 is really the phrase the sentence needs.

context setup

这段话先说明对象和原因，所以过河拆桥读起来不突兀。

zhe duan hua xian shuo ming dui xiang he yuan yin suo yi guo he chai qiao du qi lai bu tu wu

The passage names the object and cause first, so 过河拆桥 does not feel abrupt.

teacher correction

老师让学生先解释为什么不用别的词，再用过河拆桥造句。

lao shi rang xue sheng xian jie shi wei shen me bu yong bie de ci zai yong guo he chai qiao zao ju

The teacher asks students to explain why another phrase would be wrong before writing a sentence with 过河拆桥.

Story and Cultural Context

The bridge image is practical and moral at the same time. A bridge makes crossing possible, so tearing it down after reaching the other side shows more than ordinary separation. It shows disregard for the support that made the result possible. Modern use does not require a literal bridge; the bridge can be a friend, partner, mentor, channel, institution, or resource that someone used and then denied. The bridge image makes gratitude concrete. Before crossing, the bridge is necessary; after crossing, tearing it down shows that the person values the bridge only as a tool. Modern use can describe friends, mentors, partners, suppliers, allies, or institutions. The phrase is not just about forgetting help. It is about rejecting or harming the support after benefiting from it, so its tone is sharper than a mild complaint. For this entry, the origin note is only the beginning of the explanation. The useful question is why 过河拆桥 survived as a portable judgment rather than as a decorative allusion. The classical story route gives the reader an image, but the modern sentence must still prove its own fit. A learner should ask three things: what concrete object is being judged, what evidence in the sentence supports that judgment, and what tone the phrase adds that a plain English adjective would not add. This is why the page tests 过河拆桥 through project betrayal, business partnership, friendship obligation, usage boundary, misuse boundary; each context changes the pressure on the phrase and shows whether the idiom is acting as praise, warning, neutral description, or criticism. The story or usage background also has a translation boundary. 过河拆桥 can point toward discard someone after using their help, burn bridges after crossing them, forget the people who helped you, but those English choices are not interchangeable. One version may preserve the image, another may sound natural in a classroom answer, and another may be safer in a workplace or essay sentence. The entry therefore treats public references as source cards, not as a paragraph order to imitate. Headword checks, story labels, and English equivalents are separated first; only after that are they rebuilt into the learner path used here: answer, label, examples, wrong-use clinic, comparison, story, and practice. The most common failure is overextension. Because 过河拆桥 has a memorable surface, learners may reach for it whenever a topic feels close. The better habit is to compare it with 以心换心 and 因果报应 and with 风雨同舟 and 海纳百川 before writing. If the rejected phrase is hard to reject, the sentence probably has not supplied enough evidence. If the rejected phrase is easy to reject, the learner can explain the boundary and use 过河拆桥 with confidence. That is the practical purpose of the origin section: it turns cultural memory into a sentence-level decision instead of leaving the reader with a story and no next action.

Learning point: Success does not erase the support that made success possible.

Open the dedicated story page

Editorial Notes

These notes turn the entry into a decision path, not a loose definition.

First answer before details

过河拆桥 should first be read as a decision about to discard help after it has served its purpose, not as a collectible story label. The classical story helps memory, but the reader's real task is to decide whether the modern sentence is making a negative judgment with enough evidence. Start with the object being described, then ask what happened, who is being judged, and whether the tone is fair. If those details are missing, the idiom will feel like learned decoration rather than useful Chinese. This first-answer rule also helps teachers and translators: they can explain the phrase quickly before deciding whether a longer story, comparison, or correction block is needed.

Example clinic

The examples for 过河拆桥 deliberately cover project betrayal, business partnership, friendship obligation, usage boundary, misuse boundary because a learner needs more than one successful sentence before the phrase becomes usable. Read the Chinese sentence, then explain in plain English why this phrase is more precise than a simple adjective or loose translation. A strong example names the context, shows the evidence, and makes the tone visible. A weak example merely places the chengyu near a related topic. This habit prevents a common error: remembering the literal image but forgetting the social judgment carried by the phrase. When the example feels forced, return to the meaning line and choose a plainer wording.

Comparison boundary

Before using 过河拆桥, compare it with 以心换心 and 因果报应 and, when possible, with 风雨同舟 and 海纳百川. The comparison is not a synonym game. Nearby chengyu often share effort, caution, wisdom, or evaluation as a topic, while differing in cause, timing, and emotional force. A good learner sentence can explain why the rejected phrase fails. If that explanation is impossible, the chosen idiom is probably too loose. This is also the cleanest internal-link reason: the next page exists because it helps the reader reject a tempting but wrong choice. The comparison should leave a reusable rule, not merely another link to click.

Wrong-use trigger

过河拆桥 should be rejected when the sentence lacks an object, hides the reason for the judgment, or uses the idiom only because it sounds literary. The safest correction is to rewrite the sentence in plain English first, then add the chengyu only if it sharpens the meaning. If the tone becomes unfair, choose a gentler nearby phrase. If the source image is memorable but the modern object does not match, use the story only as background and do not force the idiom into the sentence. This wrong-use trigger is what keeps the entry from becoming a long but vague dictionary page.

Source synthesis note

过河拆桥 uses public references as checkpoints rather than as a structure to copy. One source may help with the headword, another with a story or image, and another with English translation range. The page then rebuilds those checks into its own learner order: short answer, label, examples, misuse, collocation, guide, story, and practice. This matters because a single-source paraphrase would give readers a familiar-looking article but not a better learning tool. The editorial value here is the decision path: what to use, what not to use, what to compare, and how to test the phrase in a new sentence.

Practice This Decision

Answer a focused quiz question, then come back to the examples and misuse clinic if the near phrase feels tempting.

Start focused quizReview mistakes first