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糖衣炮彈

简糖衣炮弹 · 繁糖衣炮彈

Mandarin · pinyin táng yī pào dàn

sugar-coated bullets, term used by Mao (originally in 1949) to refer to corrupting bourgeois influences

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Characters in this entry

糖: táng · sugar; candy; sweets
衣: yī · clothes, clothing; cover, skin; Kangxi radical 145
炮: pào · large gun, cannon; artillery
彈: Look up this written character
弹: dàn · pellet, bullet, shot, shell

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–4–4 · tang2 yi1 pao4 dan4

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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.

糖衣炮彈 · find source passages ↗ · 糖衣炮弹 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tong4 ji1 paau3 daan2

Cantonese word readings for 糖衣炮彈. 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) “Sugar-coated bullets (of the bourgeoisie)”, an expression used by Mao Zedong to refer to the method of using a deceptive image to rope in and corrupt the enemy.

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

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