Glossary / Combat and Conflict
Combat and Conflict in Chinese: 194 Terms and Their English Renderings
The vocabulary of organised violence: tactics, betrayal, sieges, retreats.
194 terms
| Chinese | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 投名状 | Loyalty Token | Proof of commitment handed to a new master, usually a head, a stolen treasure, or a betrayal of your own people. The point is not the gift but the fact that there is no way back. |
| 里应外合 | Strike from Within and Without | An attack timed with someone already inside the gate. The outside force is only the noise; the real breach comes from the traitor. |
| 内奸 | Mole | The person inside who opens the door. Almost always discovered after the damage is done, and almost always someone the sect trusted for years. |
| 偷袭 | Sneak Attack | Striking with no declaration and no warning. In a world obsessed with face, this is the most contemptible tactic and the most effective one. |
| 暗算 | Plot Against | Harm arranged in advance and never announced: poison, a rigged formation, a knife from behind. The planner keeps his hands clean in public. |
| 围杀 | Encirclement Kill | Several cultivators closing a ring on one target with the intent to finish it. Numbers are supposed to beat realm here, and usually do not. |
| 伏击 | Ambush | Waiting concealed for a target to pass. Happens at valley mouths, at secret realm exits, and on the road home. |
| 突围 | Breakout | Cutting a path out of an encirclement. Nearly always costs something: a treasure, a limb, or the people holding the rear. |
| 断后 | Hold the Rear | Staying behind to cover a retreat, knowing you probably will not follow. The moment a minor character becomes worth remembering. |
| 碾压 | Crush | Winning so completely that the fight never becomes a fight. Used when the realm gap is beyond argument and the winner never bothers to posture. |
| 一招 | One Move | A single exchange. 'Defeated in one move' is the standard measure of humiliation in a duel, and the line every crowd repeats afterwards. |
| 全力一击 | Full-Power Strike | Everything in one blow, with nothing held back for defense. If it fails, the attacker has nothing left. |
| 随手一挥 | Careless Wave | A flick of the hand that ends the exchange. The gesture matters more than the technique: the opponent was not worth a stance. |
| 天地变色 | The Sky Changes Color | Set description for a strike at the highest tier. The weather reacts; the point is that the world itself acknowledges the blow. |
| 境界压制 | Realm Suppression | A higher realm pressing on a lower one until technique stops mattering. The reason nobody below the fight dares to step in. |
| 越阶 | Fight Above One's Realm | Beating someone at a higher cultivation stage. Rare enough that one case becomes the talk of a whole region. |
| 杀意 | Killing Intent | The will to kill made perceptible. A cultivator feels it before any weapon moves, and it can pin a weaker opponent in place. |
| 护体灵光 | Protective Qi Light | The layer of spiritual light shielding the body. When it shatters, the fight is already decided, whatever the two sides say next. |
| 硬抗 | Take It Head-On | Absorbing a blow instead of dodging, to prove the size of the gap. A display of contempt as much as of strength. |
| 一击必杀 | One-Hit Kill | A single blow meant to end a life. Announced as a threat it is usually a bluff; performed without announcement it is usually not. |
| 深可见骨 | Wound to the Bone | Injury description: the cut goes deep enough to show bone. Signals damage that ordinary healing pills cannot close. |
| 求饶 | Beg for Mercy | Asking to be spared, usually from the knees. In this genre it buys time far more often than it buys a life. |
| 饶命 | Spare My Life | The actual words of surrender, short and repeated. Always said to someone who has already decided, which is why the answer is a pause. |
| 手下留情 | Show Mercy | Asking a stronger party not to go all out. Also used flatly after a one-sided beating, as an accusation dressed as courtesy. |
| 网开一面 | Leave a Way Out | Deliberately leaving one gap in the net, whether from old friendship or because killing everyone would be inconvenient later. |
| 赶尽杀绝 | Hunt Them to the Last | Refusing to leave a single survivor, including servants and children. Considered excessive even by villains, and a reliable signal of what the winner is. |
| 斩草除根 | Pull Out the Roots | Killing the whole line so nothing grows back to take revenge. The cold, practical phrasing of the same idea. |
| 灭门 | Wipe Out a House | Killing an entire clan or sect down to the servants. The standard atrocity that opens a revenge plot and closes a reputation. |
| 血洗 | Wash in Blood | A massacre described as cleaning. The word choice is the horror: it frames slaughter as housework. |
| 溃散 | Break and Scatter | An army coming apart and ceasing to be an army. What happens the instant the strongest fighter on your side falls. |
| 一哄而散 | Scatter in a Panic | A crowd dissolving in every direction at once. Used for onlookers, hired hands, and disciples who never signed up for this. |
| 丧家之犬 | Like a Masterless Dog | The look of someone who has lost their backing and is running. The insult is about losing a home, not about courage. |
| 大势已去 | The Tide Has Turned | The moment it becomes clear the battle cannot be won. Said by the losing side, usually seconds before they run. |
| 搜刮 | Loot | Stripping a defeated place of everything worth carrying: pills, artifacts, spirit stones, even the furniture. The reason the winner is never poor afterwards. |
| 宝库 | Treasure Vault | A sect's stockpile of pills, artifacts, and spirit stones. Always the real objective when an army climbs the mountain. |
| 残部 | Shattered Remnants | What is left of a force after a defeat. Leaderless, wounded, and usually absorbed by whoever won. |
| 镇宗之宝 | Sect-Suppressing Treasure | The single artifact a sect would rather die than lose, and the thing enemies target first. Its destruction marks the end of a sect more clearly than any body count. |
| 怨魂 | Vengeful Spirit | Souls of the wrongfully killed, held back from reincarnation and used as fuel. The signature material of demonic artifacts and blood banners. |
| 御剑 | Sword Flight | Riding a flying sword. The signature of sword cultivators, and the reason they always arrive first. |
| 御空 | Sky Walking | Standing on air without a treasure. Proof of realm rather than skill; below a certain stage it is simply impossible. |
| 遁术 | Evasion Art | The family of techniques for getting out alive: earth, water, light, blood. Unglamorous, and the reason some old cultivators are still alive. |
| 血遁 | Blood Escape | Burning essence blood to vanish on the spot. Works every time, and costs a stage of cultivation every time. |
| 缩地成寸 | Shrink the Earth | Crossing li in a single step. A legendary movement art, more often described than witnessed. |
| 身法 | Movement Art | A technique trained purely for speed and evasion. Decides who gets to leave a fight they cannot win. |
| 法宝轰击 | Artifact Barrage | Trading blows with flying treasures at range. A contest of qi reserves and artifact grade more than of skill. |
| 斗法 | Spell Duel | A formal exchange between cultivators, treasures and techniques included. The polite word for a fight that will still end badly. |
| 斗宝 | Treasure Contest | Comparing artifacts instead of fighting. Used to settle arguments between people who cannot afford a real fight. |
| 试探 | Probe | A strike at three-tenths strength, to learn what the other side is. Every serious fight starts with one. |
| 留手 | Hold Back | Not using everything, usually because killing here would create a worse enemy than losing. |
| 退走 | Withdraw | Leaving a fight you cannot win. In this genre, a sign of experience rather than cowardice. |
| 剑招 | Sword Move | A named technique inside a sword art. Names matter; they announce what is coming. |
| 剑势 | Sword Momentum | Pressure that builds before the blade moves. A good swordsman wins here first. |
| 剑罡 | Sword Astral Qi | Condensed sword aura hard enough to block a weapon. The mark of a serious sword cultivator. |
| 剑域 | Sword Domain | A region where every blade answers to one person. Step inside and the fight is already decided. |
| 刀罡 | Blade Astral Qi | The blade equivalent of sword astral qi. Heavier, slower, harder to stop. |
| 刀势 | Blade Momentum | The weight a blade carries before it swings. What people mean by a dominating style. |
| 拳罡 | Fist Astral Qi | Force pushed out past the knuckles. Punches that land without contact. |
| 拳风 | Fist Wind | The air pressure ahead of a punch. The warning before the impact. |
| 掌力 | Palm Force | The driving force behind an open-hand strike. Wide, heavy, hard to dodge. |
| 指劲 | Finger Force | Force concentrated into a single point. Small, precise, and lethal at short range. |
| 弹指 | Flick | One flick of a finger. The gesture that says the opponent was never worth standing up for. |
| 点穴 | Acupoint Strike | Hitting a specific point to lock the body. Precise, and impossible to train against quickly. |
| 隔空取物 | Grasp at a Distance | Pulling an object through the air. Small trick, large humiliation when used on a weapon. |
| 气劲 | Qi Force | The general term for force released from the body. The foundation of everything unarmed. |
| 罡劲 | Astral Force | Hardened qi force. Leaves dents in walls and refuses to disperse. |
| 明劲 | Manifest Force | Force that announces itself. Loud, honest, and easy to read. |
| 化劲 | Dissolving Force | Neutralising an incoming blow instead of blocking it. Looks like losing, ends as winning. |
| 借力 | Borrow Force | Using the opponent's own momentum against them. The cheapest way to win. |
| 卸力 | Shed Force | Letting a strike pass through without taking it. Requires more skill than armour. |
| 硬功 | Hard Technique | Training the body to absorb damage. Unfashionable, and very hard to kill. |
| 软功 | Soft Technique | Training the body to bend and yield. Beats hard technique on a good day. |
| 步法 | Footwork | Where the feet go. Decides who is still standing when the technique fails. |
| 轻功 | Light Body Skill | Running on walls and rooftops. Mortal-world staple, still useful at low realms. |
| 提纵 | Leap | A boosted jump, several zhang at a time. The basic escape in any chase. |
| 闪避 | Evade | Getting out of the way. Unglamorous, and the reason old fighters are old. |
| 后撤 | Fall Back | Stepping back to reset. Read as weakness until it wins the fight. |
| 侧闪 | Sidestep | The smallest possible movement that avoids the blow. Efficient to the point of insult. |
| 疾冲 | Charge | A straight accelerating run into the enemy. Ends fights quickly, one way or the other. |
| 突进 | Rush In | Closing the distance on purpose. Used against ranged fighters and people who talk too much. |
| 缠斗 | Close Engagement | Staying inside the opponent's reach. Dirty, exhausting, and effective. |
| 游斗 | Harass | Circling and striking without committing. The tactic of the weaker side that wants to live. |
| 拖战 | Drag It Out | Deliberately prolonging the fight until qi runs out. Cold, patient, and hard to counter. |
| 速战 | End It Fast | Finishing before the other side can adapt. The counter to anyone stronger. |
| 抢攻 | Seize the Initiative | Attacking first, before the other side settles. Half of all fights are decided here. |
| 后手 | Second Move | Letting the opponent act first so you can read them. Risky, and often correct. |
| 先手 | First Move | Initiative. Whoever holds it sets the terms of the fight. |
| 破绽 | Opening | A gap in the guard. Small, brief, and the only thing anyone is actually looking for. |
| 空门 | Guard Gap | A hole built into a technique itself. Every art has one; few admit it. |
| 招式老 | Played Out | A move carried past its end, with nothing left to adjust. The moment a fight turns. |
| 变招 | Change the Move | Switching mid-strike. The difference between a trained fighter and a copyist. |
| 虚招 | Feint | A committed strike that was never meant to land. Its only job is to make the real one work. |
| 实招 | Real Strike | The blow behind the feint. Usually delivered while the opponent is still admiring the first. |
| 连招 | Chained Moves | Techniques strung together so the end of one is the start of the next. No gaps, no breath. |
| 收招 | Recover | Bringing a technique back under control. Failing to is how good fighters die. |
| 回气 | Catch Breath | Stealing a moment to restore qi. Everyone can see it, and everyone attacks during it. |
| 一击 | Single Strike | One blow, meant to decide everything. The genre's preferred unit of resolution. |
| 僵持 | Stalemate | Neither side able to finish. The point where politics replaces technique. |
| 压制 | Suppress | Holding someone down without killing them. Usually the prelude to terms. |
| 反攻 | Counterstrike | Turning defence into attack in one motion. The best moment in any fight. |
| 翻盘 | Turn the Tables | Reversing a fight that was already lost. Only believable if the groundwork was laid earlier. |
| 惨败 | Crushing Defeat | Losing badly enough that the survivors change their plans for decades. |
| 险胜 | Narrow Victory | Winning by a margin nobody wants to examine too closely. |
| 平局 | Draw | Neither side wins. In this genre, it means somebody was holding back. |
| 两败俱伤 | Mutual Destruction | Both sides ruined. Sometimes the only way a weaker party can win. |
| 同归于尽 | Die Together | Dragging the enemy down with you. The threat that ends most last stands. |
| 以一敌百 | One Against a Hundred | The setup for every public display of overwhelming power. |
| 寡不敌众 | Outnumbered | Numbers mattering at last. The excuse of everyone who lost an unwinnable fight. |
| 势均力敌 | Evenly Matched | An actual contest. Rarer than it sounds, and always expensive. |
| 高下立判 | Difference Obvious | One exchange is enough to see who is stronger. Usually followed by silence. |
| 胜负已分 | Decided | The result is settled even though the fight is not. The line that ends an argument. |
| 尘埃落定 | Settled | Everything resolved. Used at the end of an arc, and said by whoever survived. |
| 声东击西 | Feint East, Strike West | Drawing attention one way, attacking the other. Old, cheap, still works. |
| 围点打援 | Besiege and Ambush Relief | Surround one target so the rescue force walks into the real trap. |
| 各个击破 | Defeat in Detail | Taking enemies one at a time instead of all at once. Logistics disguised as strategy. |
| 诱敌深入 | Lure In Deep | Letting the enemy advance into ground you chose years ago. |
| 以逸待劳 | Rest While They March | Letting the other side exhaust itself on the way to you. |
| 背水一战 | Last Stand | Fighting with no retreat available. Terrifying to face, and easy to plan for. |
| 破釜沉舟 | Burn the Boats | Removing your own way out so nobody can hesitate. Old, brutal, effective. |
| 孤注一掷 | All In | Everything on one throw. Used by characters with nothing left to lose. |
| 铤而走险 | Risk Everything | Taking the dangerous route because the safe ones are closed. |
| 见机行事 | Play It by Ear | No plan fixed in advance. What subordinates say when the plan has already failed. |
| 静观其变 | Watch and Wait | Doing nothing on purpose. In this genre, the most underrated tactic. |
| 按兵不动 | Hold Position | Keeping troops still while everyone else commits. Political as much as military. |
| 虚张声势 | Bluff | Looking stronger than you are. Works once, then becomes a death sentence. |
| 以假乱真 | Fake Passes as Real | A forgery good enough to be used. Common with techniques, treasures and people. |
| 金蝉脱壳 | Slip Away | Leaving a convincing shell behind and walking out in another direction. |
| 调虎离山 | Lure the Tiger Off the Mountain | Drawing the strongest defender away from the thing he is defending. |
| 请君入瓮 | Into the Jar | Arranging things so the target steps into the trap willingly. |
| 瓮中捉鳖 | Fish in a Barrel | The target has nowhere to run. The execution, not the plan. |
| 一网打尽 | Net Them All | Taking everyone at once so nobody escapes to report. |
| 斩首 | Behead | Killing the leader to end the force. Fast, and it usually makes things worse for the killer. |
| 擒王 | Seize the Leader | Taking the head alive. Harder than killing, worth far more. |
| 追击 | Pursue | Chasing a broken enemy. The phase where most casualties happen. |
| 掩护 | Cover | Drawing attention or fire so someone else can act. A duty with a short life expectancy. |
| 铁布衫 | Iron Shirt | External hard training for the torso. Turns blades aside, does nothing against internal injury. |
| 金钟罩 | Golden Bell Cover | The peak of external hard technique. Unbreakable from outside, and no help at all inside. |
| 鹰爪功 | Eagle Claw | A gripping and tearing technique. Once it closes, it does not open. |
| 铁砂掌 | Iron Sand Palm | Hands trained in heated sand until they can break stone. Strikes that damage from within. |
| 指剑 | Finger Sword | Two fingers used as a blade. The least armed a swordsman can look while still armed. |
| 试探性一击 | Probing Strike | The specific hit used to gauge defence. Lighter than it looks. |
| 强攻 | Full Assault | Committing everything. Decisive when it works and fatal when it does not. |
| 强攻不下 | Assault Stalled | The attack loses momentum. The point where the defender starts to win. |
| 消耗战 | War of Attrition | Both sides paying. Fights that last a chapter usually get described this way. |
| 速战速决 | End It Quickly | The decision to stop conserving. Usually spoken aloud, which is a mistake. |
| 拖延 | Stall for Time | Buying time. The tactic of anyone waiting for reinforcements. |
| 拖时间 | Buy Time | The plainer version. What a weaker character does while talking. |
| 合击 | Combined Strike | Two or more attacking together. Formation-adjacent, and used by monsters. |
| 围攻 | Besiege | Surrounding. The numerical advantage that cultivation exists to overcome. |
| 围三阙一 | Encircle Three Sides, Leave One Open | The standard siege. The open side is where the ambush is. |
| 添油战术 | Feed in Piecemeal | Committing troops in small groups. Always criticised and always used. |
| 回马枪 | Turn and Strike | The counterattack during a retreat. The genre's favourite reversal. |
| 诈败 | Feigned Defeat | Pretending to lose. Effective exactly once per book. |
| 装死 | Play Dead | A real option in this genre, and occasionally the smartest one. |
| 出其不意 | Strike Unexpectedly | The tactical principle. Used to explain why the weaker side wins. |
| 攻其不备 | Strike the Unprepared | The other half of the same principle. Usually paired with the above. |
| 腹背受敌 | Enemies Front and Back | Pincer. Causes the blood-spitting reaction in younger characters. |
| 背刺 | Stab in the Back | Literal betrayal at close range. The genre's most efficient death. |
| 毒箭 | Poisoned Arrow | The arrow with a payload. Used to even a fight that the archer should lose. |
| 冷箭 | Stray Arrow | A shot from an unengaged position. Also used figuratively for betrayal. |
| 伏击圈 | Ambush Ring | The sealed area. Entering it is always described before it closes. |
| 包围圈 | Encirclement | The wider version. Consolidates over several paragraphs. |
| 殿后 | Bring Up the Rear | The formal version. Slightly less likely to be fatal. |
| 掩杀 | Pursue and Slaughter | Running down a retreating force. The aftermath scene. |
| 穷追不舍 | Relentless Pursuit | The full commitment. Used when the pursuer has something personal at stake. |
| 逃跑 | Flee | Leaving. Not a loss in this genre, merely a delay. |
| 遁走 | Escape by Art | Leaving via a technique. Respectable in a way that running is not. |
| 援军 | Reinforcements | The arrival. Always timed to the last possible moment. |
| 救兵 | Rescue Force | The same with a warmer word. Sent by someone the protagonist helped earlier. |
| 增援 | Reinforce | The verb. Used in planning scenes rather than during fights. |
| 人海战术 | Human Wave | Numbers against quality. Cheap, and occasionally works. |
| 群殴 | Gang Beating | Several against one. The genre's most honest description of a sect's methods. |
| 单挑 | One on One | The formal duel. Status is on the line as much as survival. |
| 以少胜多 | Few Against Many | The tactical victory. Usually attributed to terrain or to a formation. |
| 一边倒 | One-Sided | The mismatch. Used before the reversal, never after. |
| 秒杀 | One-Shot Kill | Ended instantly. Used sparingly, and devastating when used. |
| 尸横遍野 | Bodies Across the Field | The aftermath. Written in five characters, translated in about the same. |
| 血流成河 | Rivers of Blood | The same scene, wetter. Frequent enough to be a cliché translators occasionally keep. |
| 惨烈 | Brutal | The assessment of a battle. Used to justify a character's later silence. |
| 同归 | Go Down Together | The mutually destructive ending. A legitimate tactical goal. |
| 收尸 | Collect the Bodies | Aftercare. The scene where the protagonist sees who did not make it. |
| 打扫战场 | Clean the Battlefield | Looting. Where the reward for surviving arrives. |
| 战利品 | Spoils | The loot. Usually better than the stated reason for the fight. |
| 兵刃相接 | Weapons Meeting | Close combat. The sound is described, the mechanics are not. |
| 刀来剑往 | Blades Exchanging | The rhythm of a duel. A four-character phrase doing the work of a paragraph. |
| 硬碰硬 | Force Against Force | No technique, pure power. The exchange that decides whose foundation is better. |
| 以巧破力 | Skill Breaks Force | The counter. What a weaker, better-trained character does. |
| 以力破巧 | Force Breaks Skill | The counter to the counter. Used to show that raw power beats cleverness. |
| 借力打力 | Use the Enemy's Force | Redirecting. A soft-style technique and a common taiji reference. |
| 四两拨千斤 | Four Ounces Moves a Thousand Pounds | The phrase for the same principle. Almost always quoted in full. |
| 点到即止 | Touch and Stop | The courtesy rule in practice duels. Ignored by whoever is losing. |
| 同门相残 | Killing Within the Sect | The forbidden act. When it happens, the sect splits down the middle. |
| 越阶而战 | Fighting Above Your Level | The genre's central fantasy. Explained by technique, artifact, or luck. |
| 以弱胜强 | The Weak Beating the Strong | The same thing as a claim. Used in the last line of an arc. |
The tactical vocabulary is where a translation either reads like a battle or like a summary. Terms follow the free cultivation novels at cultivationnovel.com.
Where these words turn up
Stories on this site that use them the way the notes describe.
Why Is Everyone in My Sect a Spy?!A sect where every senior brother turns out to be somebody else's agent.暗算, 试探 My Rival Climbed Into My Bed to Ruin My CultivationA rival tries sabotage by seduction and picks the wrong target.暗算 An Eastern Demonic Cultivator Went West for Evil ArtsA demonic cultivator goes abroad to study the local forbidden techniques.斗法Source: cultivationnovel.com · Cultivation Glossary