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師出無名

简师出无名 · 繁師出無名

Mandarin · pinyin shī chū wú míng

lit. to go to war without just cause (idiom)
to act without justification

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Characters in this entry

師: shī · teacher, master, specialist; multitude, troops; hexagram ䷆
出: chū · go out, send out; stand; produce
無: Look up this written character
名: míng · name, rank, title, position
师: shī · teacher, master, specialist
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–2–2 · shi1 chu1 wu2 ming2

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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.

師出無名 · find source passages ↗ · 师出无名 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

si1 ceot1 mou4 ming4

Cantonese word readings for 師出無名. 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

(idiomatic) to act without a good and proper reason

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

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