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手裡劍

简手里剑 · 繁手裡劍

Mandarin · pinyin shǒu lǐ jiàn

straight or circular throwing-knife used by ninja and samurai (loanword from Japanese 手裏剣 shuriken)

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Characters in this entry

手: shǒu · hand
裡: Look up this written character
劍: Look up this written character
里: lǐ · unit of distance; village; lane; Kangxi radical 166
剑: jiàn · sword, dagger, saber

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3–4 · shou3 li3 jian4

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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.

手裡劍 · find source passages ↗ · 手里剑 · find source passages ↗

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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.

noun

shuriken; ninja star; throwing star

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

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