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下放

Mandarin · pinyin xià fàng

to delegate
to decentralize
to demote a party cadre to work on the shop floor or in the countryside

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Characters in this entry

下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
放: fàng · put, release, free, liberate

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4 · xia4 fang4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

haa6 fong3

Cantonese word readings for 下放. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

to transfer (power or authority) to a lower level
to send (someone) to the countryside (to do manual work for "reeducation")

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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