DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

兵不血刃

Mandarin · pinyin bīng bù xuè rèn

lit. no blood on the men's swords (idiom); fig. an effortless victory

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

兵: bīng · soldier, troops
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
血: xuè · blood; Kangxi radical 143
刃: rèn · edged tool, cutlery, knife edge

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–4–4–4 · bing1 bu4 xue4 ren4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

兵不血刃 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bing1 bat1 hyut3 jan6

Cantonese word readings for 兵不血刃. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(in a battle) to win without fighting or without much fight

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack