created sense approved 窃国者侯，窃钩者诛/竊國者侯，竊鉤者誅 · qièguózhěhóuqiègōuzhězhū · to steal the whole country and be made a prince, to steal a hook and be executed — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"
窃国者侯，窃钩者诛 / 竊國者侯，竊鉤者誅
qièguózhěhóuqiègōuzhězhū
to steal the whole country and be made a prince, to steal a hook and be executed
Commonly used idiom from the Daoist classic [[庄子|莊子|zhuang1 zi3]] describing double standards in justice: big crimes go unpunished while small ones are severely punished.
窃国 (literal) → 窃国/竊國 · qièguó · to usurp state power 者 (bound) → 者 · zhě · -er 侯 (literal) → 侯 · hóu · marquis ， (non_chinese) 窃 (literal) → 窃/竊 · qiè · to steal 钩 (literal) → 钩/鉤 · gōu · hook 者 (bound) → 者 · zhě · -er 诛 (literal) → 诛/誅 · zhū · to execute
Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition