城門失火,殃及池魚

简 城门失火,殃及池鱼 · 繁 城門失火,殃及池魚
Mandarin · pinyin chéng mén shī huǒ , yāng jí chí yú

Meanings

  1. a fire in the city gates is also a calamity for the fish in the moat (idiom); the bystander will also suffer
  2. fig. you can't escape responsibility for your actions
  3. ask not for whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee
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Characters in this entry

城
chéng · castle; city, town; municipality
門
mén · gate, door, entrance, opening; Kangxi radical 169
失
shī · lose; make mistake, neglect
火
huǒ · fire, flame; burn; anger, rage
殃
yāng · misfortune, disaster, calamity
及
jí · extend; reach; come up to; and
池
chí · pool, pond; moat; cistern
魚
yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195
门
mén · gate, door, entrance, opening
鱼
yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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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.

城門失火,殃及池魚 · find source passages ↗ · 城门失火,殃及池鱼 · find source passages ↗

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城門失火,殃及池魚 · cheng2 men2 shi1 huo3 , yang1 ji2 chi2 yu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 25,728
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record城門失火,殃及池魚 城门失火,殃及池鱼 [cheng2 men2 shi1 huo3 , yang1 ji2 chi2 yu2] /a fire in the city gates is also a calamity for the fish in the moat (idiom); the bystander will also suffer/fig. you can't escape responsibility for your actions/ask not for whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee/