前赴后继
qián fù hoù jì · HSK 7
to advance dauntlessly in wave upon wave (idiom)
🌊 前 front + 赴 rush + 后 behind + 继 carry-on: front ranks charge, rear ranks follow
Four-part build: those in front (前) rush forward (赴), and those behind (后) carry on (继) the push. Ranks fall and the next wave fills the gap, so the advance never stops.
前 — top 丷 + 一 + 月 (moon) + 刂 (knife)
Originally written 歬, depicting a foot 止 above a boat 舟, meaning to advance or go forward. Over time the form evolved and the knife radical 刂 was added, while 止 and 舟 fused into the modern shape. The core meaning 'front, before, ahead' has stayed consistent.
赴 — 走 'walk/run' + phonetic 卜
A semantic-phonetic compound: 走 (run, hurry) gives the meaning of going somewhere quickly, while 卜 supplies the sound. Originally meant to rush toward or hasten to a place, and still carries that sense of going to attend something, as in 赴会 'attend a meeting'.
后 — 厂 cliff + 一 + 口 mouth
Originally depicted a ruler or sovereign issuing commands, showing a figure with a mouth giving orders. It came to mean 'queen' or 'empress.' In modern simplified Chinese, 后 also absorbed the meaning 'behind/after' from the traditional character 後, so context decides which sense applies.
继 — silk radical 糹 + 㡭 (continuous threads)
继 means 'to continue' or 'succeed (to)'. The silk radical 糹 evokes threads being joined, while the right side 㡭 originally depicted unbroken strands of silk. Together they suggest splicing threads — extending what came before, hence inheriting or carrying on.