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息事寧人

简息事宁人 · 繁息事寧人

Mandarin · pinyin xī shì níng rén

to keep the peace; to patch up a quarrel (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

息: xī · rest, put stop to, end, cease
事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
寧: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
宁: níng · calm, peaceful, serene; healthy

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–2–2 · xi1 shi4 ning2 ren2

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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.

息事寧人 · find source passages ↗ · 息事宁人 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sik1 si6 ning4 jan4

Cantonese word readings for 息事寧人. 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 end a dispute or conflict and calm the people down

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

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