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背城借一

Mandarin · pinyin bèi chéng jiè yī

to make a last-ditch stand before the city wall (idiom); to fight to the last ditch
to put up a desperate struggle

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Characters in this entry

背: bèi · back; back side; behind; betray
城: chéng · castle; city, town; municipality
借: jiè · borrow; lend; make pretext of
一: yī · one; a, an; alone

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Mandarin tones

4–2–4–1 · bei4 cheng2 jie4 yi1

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bui3 sing4 ze3 jat1

Cantonese word readings for 背城借一. 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) to fight to the last ditch; to put up a desperate struggle

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

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