不要在一棵樹上吊死

简 不要在一棵树上吊死 · 繁 不要在一棵樹上吊死
Mandarin · pinyin bù yào zài yī kē shù shàng diào sǐ

Meanings

  1. don't insist on only taking one road to Rome (idiom)
  2. there's more than one way to skin a cat
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Characters in this entry

不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
要
yào · necessary, essential; necessity
在
zài · be at, in, on; consist in, rest
一
yī · one; a, an; alone
棵
kē · numerary adjunct for trees
樹
shù · tree; plant; set up, establish
上
shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
吊
diào · condole, mourn, pity; hang
死
sǐ · die; dead; death
树
shù · tree; plant; set up, establish
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–1–1–4–4–4–3 · bu4 yao4 zai4 yi1 ke1 shu4 shang4 diao4 si3

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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.

不要在一棵樹上吊死 · find source passages ↗ · 不要在一棵树上吊死 · find source passages ↗

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不要在一棵樹上吊死 · bu4 yao4 zai4 yi1 ke1 shu4 shang4 diao4 si3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 2,847
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record不要在一棵樹上吊死 不要在一棵树上吊死 [bu4 yao4 zai4 yi1 ke1 shu4 shang4 diao4 si3] /don't insist on only taking one road to Rome (idiom)/there's more than one way to skin a cat/