📖 Meaning
To enter someone's house and seize their own weapon to attack them. Figuratively, it means to use an opponent's own arguments or theories to refute them. It describes turning someone's reasoning against themselves.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the 'Book of Later Han' (后汉书), specifically the biography of Zheng Xuan (郑玄), a renowned Eastern Han dynasty scholar. He Ruo (何休) of Rencheng was fond of the Gongyang school of study and wrote three critiques defending Gongyang while attacking the Zuo and Guliang schools. Zheng Xuan wrote rebuttals using He Ruo's own reasoning. Upon reading them, He Ruo sighed in admiration, saying, 'Has Kangcheng (Zheng Xuan's courtesy name) entered my house and taken up my own weapon to strike me?'
💡 Example Usage
他在辩论中入室操戈，用对方自己的理论将其驳得体无完肤。
During the debate, he turned the opponent's own theory against them, demolishing their argument completely.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 入室操戈
- Pinyin: rù shǐ cāo gē
- Literal Translation: enter, room, take up, spear
- Category: Logic
- Characters: 4