èr​táo​shā​sān​shì

to kill someone by setting a trap

二桃杀三士 二桃殺三士 èr​táo​shā​sān​shì
to kill someone by setting a trap
To kill others through a clever scheme; specifically to incite internal conflict. This refers to a story from the Spring and Autumn period where the minister Yan Ying eliminated three powerful warriors by giving them only two peaches, causing them to argue over their merits and eventually commit suicide.

Frequency

Written text
0.013 per million

Sources

Frequency data
BCC Corpus (BLCU)