DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

留活口

Mandarin · pinyin liú huó kǒu

to capture alive a criminal (or enemy etc) for interrogation
(of a perpetrator) to let a witness live

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Characters in this entry

留: liú · stop, halt; stay, detain, keep
活: huó · live, exist, survive; lively
口: kǒu · mouth; open end; entrance, gate

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–3 · liu2 huo2 kou3

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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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