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以毒攻毒

Mandarin · pinyin yǐ dú gōng dú

to cure ills with poison (TCM)
to fight evil with evil
set a thief to catch a thief
to fight fire with fire

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Characters in this entry

以: yǐ · by means of; thereby, therefore; consider as; in order to
毒: dú · poison, venom; poisonous
攻: gōng · attack, assault; criticize

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Mandarin tones

3–2–1–2 · yi3 du2 gong1 du2

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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 fight fire with fire

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

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