DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

留一手

Mandarin · pinyin liú yī shǒu

to deliberately withhold essential knowledge or skills as strategic insurance (typically to maintain leverage, avoid being replaced, or preserve authority in hierarchical relationships)

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Characters in this entry

留: liú · stop, halt; stay, detain, keep
一: yī · one; a, an; alone
手: shǒu · hand

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–3 · liu2 yi1 shou3

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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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