Chinese idiom · 成语
手无寸铁
Meaning
Hands without an inch of iron; completely unarmed.
Character by character
Origin and story
traditional taleLiu Jingshu's Yiyuan, a collection of unusual and legendary accounts from the Southern Dynasties, preserves a story about Yang Feng and his fourteen-year-old child Yang Xiang harvesting grain. A tiger seizes the father. With no blade in hand, Yang Xiang grips the tiger's neck and saves him. The passage uses shou wu cun ren, 'without even a small blade'; the familiar idiom replaces 'blade' with 'iron,' meaning a weapon. The story illustrates the earlier wording but should be read as a traditional account of extraordinary filial courage, not a verified record of how to confront a tiger.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
看到有人持刀闹事，手无寸铁的店员立即退到安全处报警。
Seeing someone causing trouble with a knife, the unarmed shop assistant immediately moved to safety and called the police.
Specifically means unarmed, not simply lacking money or other resources.