图穷匕见

圖窮匕見
túqióng-bǐxiàn
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 when the map is unrolled, the dagger is revealed
  2. 2 the real intention finally comes out

Examples

HSK 5
Tā rào le bàntiān, zuìhòu túqióng-bǐxiàn: yuánlái shì xiǎng jiè qián.
He beat around the bush for ages, then his real aim came out: he wanted to borrow money.
HSK 7-9
Hétong qiánmian de tiáokuǎn dōu hěn zhèngcháng, zuìhòu yì tiáo cái túqióng-bǐxiàn, yào wǒmen fàngqì suǒyǒu quánlì.
The terms at the start of the contract all looked normal; only the last clause showed its real aim, which was for us to give up all our rights.

Tips

history
From the 战国策. In 227 BC 荆轲 went to the Qin court to present a map of land to the 秦王, the future First Emperor, with a dagger rolled up inside it. When the map was unrolled to its end, the dagger appeared. The king escaped, and Jing Ke was killed.
mistakes
见 is read xiàn here, an old way of writing 现 "to appear", not jiàn "to see".

Stroke Order

图 tú
穷 qióng
匕 bǐ
见 jiàn