赚 (zuàn) · to cheat; to swindle; to hoodwink

Meanings

1 to cheat; to swindle; to hoodwink

Characters

赚

zuàn

to cheat; to swindle; to hoodwink

Examples

HSK 6

吕布赚开城门，杀将进来了。

Lǚ Bù zuàn kāi chéngmén, shā jiāng jìnlái le.

Lü Bu tricked the city gate open and his troops poured in.

HSK 7-9

他用计赚虎离山。

Tā yòng jì zuàn hǔ lí shān.

He used a ruse to lure the tiger from the mountain.

Tips

register

Classical and stage-novel only. You meet zuàn almost exclusively in Ming-Qing vernacular fiction - 三国演义, 水浒传, 醒世恒言 - where a general 赚 an enemy out of a fortress by feigning surrender. Modern Mandarin uses 骗 or 诱骗 instead. Recognise the reading when reading classical novels; do not use it in conversation.

mistakes

Same character, opposite reputations. zhuàn = honest profit (the everyday workhorse). zuàn = trick someone (a literary fossil). Context disambiguates instantly: money words → zhuàn; military stratagems or vernacular-novel scenes → zuàn.

Components

radical

贝 bèi

cowrie shell; money

Left cowrie radical (Kangxi #154). On the zuàn reading the money link is faint but present - a swindle takes property from someone else, so the trade family still indexes the deception sense. Same radical home as 赌 (gamble), 贿 (bribe), 贪 (greed) - the dishonest end of the money family.

phonetic

兼 jiān

concurrent; double

Right phonetic 兼. The zuàn reading is a Middle Chinese variant preserved for the 'deceive' sense - same phonetic series as the zhuàn reading, just a different historical layer. Same-phonetic family: 廉, 嫌, 谦. The everyday 'earn money' sense lives on the zhuàn page.