DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

生殺予奪

简生杀予夺 · 繁生殺予奪

Mandarin · pinyin shēng shā yǔ duó

(lit.) to spare or to kill, to give or take away (idiom)
(fig.) control over the fate of others

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
殺: Look up this written character
予: yǔ · I, me; to give
奪: Look up this written character
杀: shā · kill, slaughter, murder; hurt
夺: duó · take by force, rob, snatch

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1–3–2 · sheng1 sha1 yu3 duo2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

生殺予奪 · find source passages ↗ · 生杀予夺 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sang1 saat3 jyu5 dyut6

Cantonese word readings for 生殺予奪. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(to hold power over the) life, death, reward and punishment (of others)

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack