史无前例

• Pinyin: shǐ wú qián lì
• Hanzi breakdown: 史 = 口 + 又 (history, records, historian); 无 = 一 + 灬 (none, without); 前 = 前 (before, in front); 例 = 人 + 列 (example, precedent, case)

Meaning

Unprecedented in history; without historical precedent. Describing something that has never occurred before in recorded history.

A four-character set phrase (成语) used to emphasise the exceptional, groundbreaking nature of an event, achievement, or situation. It carries strong rhetorical force and is used in formal speeches, news reports, academic papers, and political declarations. Can describe achievements (史无前例的突破 — an unprecedented breakthrough) or disasters (史无前例的灾难— an unprecedented catastrophe). Overuse can dilute its impact.

Examples

1. 本次全球气候峰会达成了史无前例的碳减排协议，一百九十余个国家共同承诺在本世纪中叶前实现碳中和目标。 This global climate summit reached an unprecedented carbon-reduction agreement: more than 190 countries jointly pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century.
2. 这项医学突破被誉为史无前例的重大进展，研究团队通过基因编辑技术成功逆转了多名晚期患者的病情。 This medical breakthrough has been hailed as an unprecedented major advance; the team successfully reversed the conditions of several late-stage patients using gene-editing technology.
3. 人工智能的迅猛崛起正在以史无前例的速度重塑全球劳动力市场，对就业结构与职业技能体系产生了深远影响。 The rapid rise of artificial intelligence is reshaping the global labor market at an unprecedented pace, with far-reaching effects on employment structures and the system of job skills.

Usage Guide

Context: history, science, politics, achievements, disasters, news

Tone: emphatic

Do Say

• 此次载人登月任务的成功标志着人类航天技术迈入了史无前例的新阶段，也再次证明了国际合作在推动重大科学进步中不可替代的核心作用。(The success of this crewed lunar landing mission marks the entry of human spaceflight technology into an unprecedented new phase, and once again demonstrates the irreplaceable core role of international cooperation in driving major scientific progress.)
• 面对史无前例的全球公共卫生危机，各国政府不得不在极短的时间内做出涉及数以亿计民众生命安全与经济福祉的重大决策。(Confronted with an unprecedented global public health crisis, governments around the world were forced to make major decisions affecting the lives and economic wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people within an extremely short period of time.)

Don't Say

• 史无前例 for trivial or minor novelties — it is reserved for genuinely extraordinary events of historical magnitude; using it to describe something as mundane as 'the first time I ate this dish' makes it sound hyperbolic and undermines the phrase's gravity

Origin & History

史 (history) + 无 (without, none) + 前例 (precedent, previous example)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal