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火中取栗

Mandarin · pinyin huǒ zhōng qǔ lì

lit. to pull chestnuts out of the fire (idiom)
fig. to be sb's cat's-paw

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Characters in this entry

火: huǒ · fire, flame; burn; anger, rage
中: zhōng · central; center, middle; in the midst of; hit (target); attain
取: qǔ · take, receive, obtain; select
栗: lì · chestnut tree, chestnuts; surname

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–3–4 · huo3 zhong1 qu3 li4

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fo2 zung1 ceoi2 leot6

Cantonese word readings for 火中取栗. 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 pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire; to be someone's cat's-paw

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

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