殺手鐧

See also: 杀手锏

Chinese

		killer	ancient weapon like a long solid metal truncheon; type of rapier
trad. (殺手鐧/殺手鐗)		殺手	鐧/鐗
simp. (杀手锏)		杀手	锏
alternative forms		撒手鐧／撒手鐗／撒手锏

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): shāshǒujiǎn, shāshǒujiàn

  (Zhuyin): ㄕㄚ ㄕㄡˇ ㄐㄧㄢˇ, ㄕㄚ ㄕㄡˇ ㄐㄧㄢˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): saat³ sau² gaan²

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: shāshǒujiǎn [Phonetic: shāshóujiǎn]
    • Zhuyin: ㄕㄚ ㄕㄡˇ ㄐㄧㄢˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: shashǒujiǎn
    • Wade–Giles: sha¹-shou³-chien³
    • Yale: shā-shǒu-jyǎn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: shashooujean
    • Palladius: шашоуцзянь (šašouczjanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ʂä⁵⁵ ʂoʊ̯²¹⁴⁻³⁵ t͡ɕi̯ɛn²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
      
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: shāshǒujiàn
    • Zhuyin: ㄕㄚ ㄕㄡˇ ㄐㄧㄢˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: shashǒujiàn
    • Wade–Giles: sha¹-shou³-chien⁴
    • Yale: shā-shǒu-jyàn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: shashooujiann
    • Palladius: шашоуцзянь (šašouczjanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ʂä⁵⁵ ʂoʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ t͡ɕi̯ɛn⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: saat³ sau² gaan²
    • Yale: saat sáu gáan
    • Cantonese Pinyin: saat⁸ sau² gaan²
    • Guangdong Romanization: sad³ seo² gan²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /saːt̚³ sɐu̯³⁵ kaːn³⁵/

Noun

殺手鐧

1. (figurative) one's trump card
   • [2015, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America‎^[1] (in English), Threshold Editions, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 223:

     Their efforts in many of these areas are a result of a decades-long commitment to the development of technologies that exploit particular areas of American weakness. Some of these projects sound like the stuff of science fiction, but many of them are part of a larger effort known as shashoujian, or “Assassin's Mace,” a term derived from an ancient Chinese folktale. In the story, a weaker hero triumphs over a mighty adversary with a macelike weapon hidden in his sleeve. Michael Pillsbury, director of the Center for Chinese Strategy at the Hudson Institute, explains the term in the military context: “Assassin's Mace refers to a set of asymmetric weapons that allows an inferior enemy to defeat a seemingly superior adversary by striking at an enemy's weakest point.” China has been embarked upon an effort to develop Assassin's Mace weapons for use against the United States for the better part of twenty years.]