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乘火打劫

Mandarin · pinyin chéng huǒ dǎ jié

to take advantage of sb's misfortune
to loot

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Characters in this entry

乘: chéng · ride, ascend; avail oneself of; numerary adjunct for vehicles
火: huǒ · fire, flame; burn; anger, rage
打: dǎ · strike, hit, beat; fight; attack
劫: jié · take by force, coerce; disaster

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–3–2 · cheng2 huo3 da3 jie2

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sing4 fo2 daa2 gip3

Cantonese word readings for 乘火打劫. 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 take advantage of another person's misfortune for personal gain

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

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