DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

冤有頭，債有主

简冤有头，债有主 · 繁冤有頭，債有主

Mandarin · pinyin yuān yǒu tóu , zhài yǒu zhǔ

for every grievance someone is responsible, for every debt there is a debtor (idiom)
when settling disputes one should not involve third parties

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

冤: yuān · grievance, injustice, wrong
有: yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
頭: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
債: Look up this written character
主: zhǔ · master, chief owner; host; lord
头: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
债: zhài · debt, loan, liabilities

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

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

6character 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.

冤有頭，債有主 · find source passages ↗ · 冤有头，债有主 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗