破釜沉舟

pò fǔ chén zhōu

to go all in; burn one’s boats

Character by character

破pò
break

釜fǔ
pots

沉chén
sink

舟zhōu
boats

他破釜沉舟，辞掉工作全职创业。

He went all in, quitting his job to run his start-up full time.

Tone: positive (praise).

From 《史记》: Xiang Yu had his troops smash their cooking pots and sink their boats so they could only win.

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