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人面獸心

简人面兽心 · 繁人面獸心

Mandarin · pinyin rén miàn shòu xīn

(lit.) human face, beastly heart (idiom)
(fig.) mild in appearance but malicious in nature

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Characters in this entry

人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
面: miàn · face; surface; plane; side, dimension; Kangxi radical 176
獸: Look up this written character
心: xīn · heart; mind, intelligence; soul; 5th lunar mansion, determinative star α Scorpii (Antares)
兽: shòu · beast, animal; bestial

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–4–1 · ren2 mian4 shou4 xin1

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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.

人面獸心 · find source passages ↗ · 人面兽心 · find source passages ↗

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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 be savage and cruel

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

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