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During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zheng Xuan studied under Kong Rong, who greatly admired him, praising him for truly inheriting his scholarship.
Zheng Xuan wrote essays like "Moshou" and "Feiji" to express his own views against scholar He Xiu's works, such as "Gongyang Moshou" and "Zuoshi Gaohuang," hitting their crucial points.
After reading them, He Xiu exclaimed with a sigh, "Zheng Xuan has entered my house and wielded my spear to attack me!"

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Open the tool →操矛入室 (cāo máo rù shì) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to deeply understand an opponent's arguments, identify their weaknesses, and then use their own logic or points to refute them; to turn an opponent's weapons against them”.
操矛入室 is pronounced cāo máo rù shì in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 操矛入室 means “Wielding a spear and entering the room”. It is used to mean “to deeply understand an opponent's arguments, identify their weaknesses, and then use their own logic or points to refute them; to turn an opponent's weapons against them”.
操矛入室 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
比喻深入了解对方,找出其纰漏,又以对方的论点来批驳对方。