前车之鉴

qián chē zhī jiàn

a lesson learned from an earlier failure

Character by character

前qián
front

车chē
cart

之zhī
's

鉴jiàn
mirror

有了前车之鉴，这次我们准备得更充分。

Having learned from last time, we were better prepared.

Tone: neutral.

The cart ahead overturned, so take warning. 鉴 = mirror.

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