以柔克刚 — Chinese idiom
以柔克刚
yǐ róu kè gāng
Traditional: 以柔克剛
Meaning
- to use softness to conquer strength
Character by character
- 以yǐaccording to; so as to; because of; then
- 柔róusoft, supple; gentle; flexible
- 克kèto subdue, to restrain, to overcome; used in trans
- 刚gānghard, strong, tough; just, barely
Idioms sharing a character
- 一以贯之 yī yǐ guàn zhī
- 不以为然 bù yǐ wéi rán
- 不知所以 bù zhī suǒ yǐ
- 以一驭万 yǐ yī yù wàn
- 以假乱真 yǐ jiǎ luàn zhēn
- 以债养债 yǐ zhài yǎng zhài
- 以儆效尤 yǐ jǐng xiào yóu
- 以卵击石 yǐ luǎn jī shí
- 以史为鉴 yǐ shǐ wéi jiàn
- 以夷制夷 yǐ yí zhì yí
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.