created sense approved 窃钩窃国/竊鉤竊國 · qiègōuqièguó · to steal a hook is to be executed, to steal a country is to be made a lord — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"
窃钩窃国 / 竊鉤竊國
qiègōuqièguó
to steal a hook is to be executed, to steal a country is to be made a lord
Classic expression used to criticize the hypocrisy and injustice of a legal system where small crimes are punished severely while grand criminals gain power; implies that reward and punishment are disconnected from the scale of the deed or that the law is applied inconsistently
窃 (literal) → 窃/竊 · qiè · to steal 钩 (literal) → 钩/鉤 · gōu · hook 窃国 (literal) → 窃国/竊國 · qièguó · to usurp state power
Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition