图穷匕见 — Chinese idiom
图穷匕见
tú qióng bǐ xiàn
Traditional: 圖窮匕見
Meaning
- (lit.) the assassin's dagger, concealed in a map scroll, is suddenly revealed when the map is unrolled (referring to the attempted assassination of Ying Zheng 嬴政 (Yíng Zhèng) by Jing Ke 荆轲 (Jīng Kē) in 227 BC)
- (fig.) malicious intent suddenly becomes apparent
Character by character
- 图túdiagram, chart, map, picture; to plan
- 穷qióngpoor, destitute; to exhaust
- 匕bǐspoon, ladle; knife, dirk
- 见xiànto see, to observe, to meet, to appear
Idioms sharing a character
- 励精图治 lì jīng tú zhì
- 另有企图 lìng yǒu qǐ tú
- 唯利是图 wéi lì shì tú
- 幡然改图 fān rán gǎi tú
- 感恩图报 gǎn ēn tú bào
- 按图索骥 àn tú suǒ jì
- 发奋图强 fā fèn tú qiáng
- 发愤图强 fā fèn tú qiáng
- 国弱民穷 guó ruò mín qióng
- 安富恤穷 ān fù xù qióng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.