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以暴易暴

Mandarin · pinyin yǐ bào yì bào

to replace one tyranny by another
to use violence against violence

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Characters in this entry

以: yǐ · by means of; thereby, therefore; consider as; in order to
暴: bào · violent, brutal, tyrannical
易: yì · change; easy

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–4–4 · yi3 bao4 yi4 bao4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to replace one tyranny with another

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

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