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借刀殺人

简借刀杀人 · 繁借刀殺人

Mandarin · pinyin jiè dāo shā rén

to lend sb a knife to kill sb
to get sb else to do one's dirty work
to attack using the strength of another (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

借: jiè · borrow; lend; make pretext of
刀: dāo · knife; old coin; measure
殺: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
杀: shā · kill, slaughter, murder; hurt

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–1–2 · jie4 dao1 sha1 ren2

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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.

借刀殺人 · find source passages ↗ · 借刀杀人 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ze3 dou1 saat3 jan4

Cantonese word readings for 借刀殺人. 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 get someone else to do one's dirty work; to attack someone using the strength of another

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

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