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假道伐虢

Mandarin · pinyin jiǎ dào fá Guó

to obtain safe passage to conquer the State of Guo
to borrow the resources of an ally to attack a common enemy (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

假: jiǎ · falsehood, deception; vacation
道: dào · path, road, street; method, way
伐: fá · cut down, subjugate, attack
虢: guó · name of ancient feudal State in Shenxi and Hunan

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–2–2 · jia3 dao4 fa2 Guo2

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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

gaa2 dou6 fat6 gwik1

Cantonese word readings for 假道伐虢. 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

(figurative) to make peace with a smaller enemy and use it as a springboard to attack another common enemy, before turning on the first

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

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