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捨不得孩子套不住狼

简舍不得孩子套不住狼 · 繁捨不得孩子套不住狼

Mandarin · pinyin shě bù de hái zi tào bù zhù láng

one who is not prepared to risk his child will never catch the wolf (proverb)
(fig.) one who is unwilling to take risks will not achieve great things

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Characters in this entry

捨: Look up this written character
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
得: dé · obtain, get, gain, acquire
孩: hái · baby, child; children
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
套: tào · case, cover, wrapper, envelope
住: zhù · reside, live at, dwell, lodge; stop
狼: láng · wolf
舍: shě · shè · house, dwelling; dwell, reside

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–5–2–5–4–4–4–2 · she3 bu4 de5 hai2 zi5 tao4 bu4 zhu4 lang2

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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.

捨不得孩子套不住狼 · find source passages ↗ · 舍不得孩子套不住狼 · 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) something must be sacrificed in order to make an obtainment

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

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