借刀杀人 — “To kill with a borrowed knife”

Q: What is the Chinese definition of 借刀杀人?

比喻自己不出面，借别人的手去害人。

借刀杀人 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to kill with a borrowed knife”. To instigate or manipulate others to harm someone else without getting involved oneself. Literally, “borrow a knife to kill someone”.

Frequency

借刀杀人 Pronunciation and Pinyin

借刀杀人 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
借	jiè	10	borrow, lend, or make use of
刀	dāo	2	knife
杀	shā	6	to kill
人	rén	2	human being, person

Example Sentence with 借刀杀人

他总是喜欢在背后出谋划策，让别人去承担风险，这简直是借刀杀人。

He always likes to scheme behind the scenes, letting others take the risks. This is simply using others to harm someone else.

Origin and Story of 借刀杀人

During the Three Kingdoms period, after Zhuge Liang (Kongming) passed away, General Wei Yan had a dream where horns grew on his head. He misinterpreted this as a sign that he was destined to become a king, which made him deeply dissatisfied with Zhuge Liang's posthumous arrangements.

Wei Yan then rebelled against the Shu Han forces led by Yang Yi. Yang Yi, following Zhuge Liang's secret stratagem left in a brocade pouch, confronted Wei Yan and challenged him to shout 'Who dares kill me?' three times in front of the army.

Wei Yan, arrogant and believing himself invincible, loudly proclaimed the phrase. As he did, Ma Dai, another general who had secretly received instructions from Zhuge Liang, appeared from behind Wei Yan and swiftly killed him.

This was a clever trap orchestrated by Zhuge Liang before his death, effectively using Ma Dai as the 'borrowed knife' to eliminate Wei Yan and prevent further chaos.