殺人如麻
Chinese
| to kill someone | as (if); such as | (to have) pins and needles; tingling; hemp (to have) pins and needles; tingling; hemp; numb; to bother | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| trad. (殺人如麻) | 殺人 | 如 | 麻 | |
| simp. (杀人如麻) | 杀人 | 如 | 麻 | |
| Literally: “to massacre people like mowing down hemp”. | ||||
Pronunciation
Idiom
殺人如麻
- to have killed countless people; to have committed countless murders
- 朝避猛虎，夕避長蛇。磨牙吮血，殺人如麻。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
- From: c. early 8th century, Li Bai (李白), 《蜀道難》. Translated into the English as The Steep Road to Shuh by Shigeyoshi Obata (小畑薫良), 1922.
- Zhāo bì měnghǔ, xī bì chángshé. Móyá shǔnxuè, shārén rúmá. [Pinyin]
- Fleeing at morn before the savage tigers,
Fleeing at eve before the huge serpents,
Men are killed and cut up like hemp,
While the beasts whet their fangs and lick the blood.
朝避猛虎，夕避长蛇。磨牙吮血，杀人如麻。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
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