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不宣而戰

简不宣而战 · 繁不宣而戰

Mandarin · pinyin bù xuān ér zhàn

open hostilities without declaring war
start an undeclared war

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Characters in this entry

不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
宣: xuān · declare, announce, proclaim
而: ér · and; and then; and yet; but; Kangxi radical 126
戰: Look up this written character
战: zhàn · war, fighting, battle

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1–2–4 · bu4 xuan1 er2 zhan4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

不宣而戰 · find source passages ↗ · 不宣而战 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bat1 syun1 ji4 zin3

Cantonese word readings for 不宣而戰. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to open hostilities without declaring war; to start an undeclared war

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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