出其不意,攻其不備

简 出其不意,攻其不备 · 繁 出其不意,攻其不備
Mandarin · pinyin chū qí bù yì , gōng qí bù bèi

Meanings

  1. to catch an enemy off guard with a surprise attack (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War" 孫子兵法 Sūn zǐ Bīng fǎ)
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Characters in this entry

出
chū · go out, send out; stand; produce
其
qí · his, her, its, their; that
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
意
yì · thought, idea, opinion; think
攻
gōng · attack, assault; criticize
備
bèi · prepare, ready, perfect
备
bèi · prepare, ready, perfect
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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出其不意,攻其不備 · find source passages ↗ · 出其不意,攻其不备 · find source passages ↗

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出其不意,攻其不備 · chu1 qi2 bu4 yi4 , gong1 qi2 bu4 bei4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 13,133
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record出其不意,攻其不備 出其不意,攻其不备 [chu1 qi2 bu4 yi4 , gong1 qi2 bu4 bei4] /to catch an enemy off guard with a surprise attack (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War" 孫子兵法|孙子兵法[Sun1 zi3 Bing1 fa3])/