📖 Meaning
Literally 'to strike a person with a hidden hammer.' It is a metaphor for attacking or harming someone covertly from behind the scenes. The idiom emphasizes the secrecy and underhandedness of the attack rather than any physical violence.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the journal People's Literature (人民文学), issue No. 7 of 1997. In the cited passage, a character angrily challenges anyone to reason with him, declaring that striking people with a hidden hammer is the way of Tu Xingsun. Tu Xingsun is a figure from the Ming-era novel Investiture of the Gods (封神演义) who could travel unseen underground, making him a symbol of hidden, untraceable attacks. The idiom thus draws on this folk-literary image to describe covertly harming others.
💡 Example Usage
他惯于暗锤打人，当面却装出一副老好人的模样。
He habitually attacks people behind their backs, yet puts on the face of a nice guy to their faces.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 暗锤打人
- Pinyin: àn chuí dǎ rén
- Literal Translation: dark, hammer, strike, person
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4