九流

Mandarin · pinyin jiǔ liú

Meanings

  1. the nine schools of thought, philosophical schools of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (770-220 BC), viz Confucians 儒家 Rú jiā, Daoists 道家 Dào jiā, Yin and Yang 陰陽家 Yīn yáng jiā, Legalists 法家 Fǎ jiā, Logicians 名家 Míng jiā, Mohists 墨家 Mò jiā, Diplomats 縱橫家 Zòng héng jiā, Miscellaneous 雜家 Zá jiā, and Agriculturalists 農家 Nóng jiā
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Characters in this entry

九
jiǔ · nine
流
liú · flow, circulate, drift; class
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–2 · jiu3 liu2

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gau2 lau4

Cantonese word readings for 九流. 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.

noun

  1. (historical, philosophy) the Nine Schools of Pre-Qin Philosophy (namely, Confucianism, Daoism, School of Naturalists, Legalism, School of Names, Mohism, School of Diplomacy, School of Miscellany and Agriculturalism)
  2. (archaic) myriad tributaries

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

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九流 · jiu3 liu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 4,328
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record九流 九流 [jiu3 liu2] /the nine schools of thought, philosophical schools of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (770-220 BC), viz Confucians 儒家[Ru2 jia1], Daoists 道家[Dao4 jia1], Yin and Yang 陰陽家|阴阳家[Yin1 yang2 jia1], Legalists 法家[Fa3 jia1], Logicians 名家[Ming2 jia1], Mohists 墨家[Mo4 jia1], Diplomats 縱橫家|纵横家[Zong4 heng2 jia1], Miscellaneous 雜家|杂家[Za2 jia1], and Agriculturalists 農家|农家[Nong2 jia1]/