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無毒不丈夫

简无毒不丈夫 · 繁無毒不丈夫

Mandarin · pinyin wú dú bù zhàng fu

no poison, no great man (idiom); A great man has to be ruthless.

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Characters in this entry

無: Look up this written character
毒: dú · poison, venom; poisonous
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
丈: zhàng · unit of length equal 3.3 meters; gentleman, man, husband
夫: fū · man, male adult, husband; those
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–4–5 · wu2 du2 bu4 zhang4 fu5

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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.

無毒不丈夫 · find source passages ↗ · 无毒不丈夫 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mou4 duk6 bat1 zoeng6 fu1

Cantonese word readings for 無毒不丈夫. 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.

proverb

A great man will not refuse to do something vicious, cruel or immoral when it is necessary.

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

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