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招兵買馬

简招兵买马 · 繁招兵買馬

Mandarin · pinyin zhāo bīng mǎi mǎ

lit. to recruit soldiers and buy horses (idiom)
fig. to raise an army; to recruit new staff

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Characters in this entry

招: zhāo · beckon, summon; recruit, levy
兵: bīng · soldier, troops
買: Look up this written character
馬: Look up this written character
买: mǎi · buy, purchase; bribe, persuade
马: mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–3–3 · zhao1 bing1 mai3 ma3

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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.

招兵買馬 · find source passages ↗ · 招兵买马 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ziu1 bing1 maai5 maa5

Cantonese word readings for 招兵買馬. 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 raise or enlarge an army by recruiting soldiers and buying horses
(idiomatic) to rally people or to enlarge an organization

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

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