不拘

Mandarin · pinyin bù jū

Meanings

  1. not stick to
  2. not confine oneself to
  3. whatever
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Characters in this entry

不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
拘
jū · restrain, seize, detain
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1 · bu4 ju1

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bat1 keoi1

Cantonese word readings for 不拘. 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

  1. (literary) to not confine oneself to; to set no limit to; to not stick to
  2. to not take for oneself

conj

  1. no matter (what, how, etc.); regardless of; whether

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack