不讲武德

What does 不讲武德 mean?

不讲武德 means not observing martial virtue, and it entered general speech through a viral complaint: 年轻人不讲武德，来骗，来偷袭, young people have no martial ethics, they cheat and ambush you. Nowadays it flags anything sly, from a colleague who hits reply-all to a player who camps in a corner of the map, and it is usually theatrical, since the speaker is more offended than actually wronged. It also works in reverse, as a sheepish admission after winning by a cheap trick.

Where does 不讲武德 come from?

The sentence comes from a video statement by Ma Baoguo, a self-styled tai chi master, after his defeat in an amateur match in Zibo in May 2020. He blamed trickery for the loss, protesting that the young man had ambushed a sixty-nine-year-old comrade. Bilibili remixes spread the line through the autumn, and by November 2020 news coverage and net users had generalized it into a label for foul play of any kind.

How to use 不讲武德

• 说好只充十块钱，你直接把皮肤全买了，太不讲武德了。
  Shuō hǎo zhǐ chōng shí kuài qián, nǐ zhíjiē bǎ pífū quán mǎi le, tài bù jiǎng wǔdé le.
  We agreed to spend ten yuan, and you went and bought every skin. That is simply not martial.
• 游戏里躲在草丛偷袭我，弹幕齐刷：这波不讲武德。
  Yóuxì lǐ duǒ zài cǎocóng tōuxí wǒ, dànmù qí shuā: zhè bō bù jiǎng wǔdé.
  He hid in the bushes and ambushed me, and the chat chorused: no martial ethics in that play.