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惹火燒身

简惹火烧身 · 繁惹火燒身

Mandarin · pinyin rě huǒ shāo shēn

stir up the fire and you get burnt (idiom); to get one's fingers burnt
fig. to suffer on account of one's own meddling

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Characters in this entry

惹: rě · irritate, vex, offend, incite
火: huǒ · fire, flame; burn; anger, rage
燒: shāo · burn; bake; heat; roast
身: shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
烧: shāo · burn; bake; heat; roast

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3–1–1 · re3 huo3 shao1 shen1

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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.

惹火燒身 · find source passages ↗ · 惹火烧身 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

je5 fo2 siu1 san1

Cantonese word readings for 惹火燒身. 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 court disaster; to ask for trouble

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

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