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殺人放火

简杀人放火 · 繁殺人放火

Mandarin · pinyin shā rén fàng huǒ

to kill and burn (idiom); murder and arson

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Characters in this entry

殺: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
放: fàng · put, release, free, liberate
火: huǒ · fire, flame; burn; anger, rage
杀: shā · kill, slaughter, murder; hurt

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–3 · sha1 ren2 fang4 huo3

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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.

殺人放火 · find source passages ↗ · 杀人放火 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

saat3 jan4 fong3 fo2

Cantonese word readings for 殺人放火. 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.

verb

to commit violent crimes in a habitual manner, especially as gangsters or outlaws

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

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