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公子

Mandarin · pinyin gōng zǐ

son of an official
son of nobility
your son (honorific)

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Characters in this entry

公: gōng · fair, equitable; public; duke
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3 · gong1 zi3

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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

gung1 zi2

Cantonese word readings for 公子. 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

(historical) scion; son or daughter of a feudal prince, vassal king or duke (especially of the kings of Zhou dynasty)
(honorific) your son
(figurative) son of privilege; son of an official; son of nobility
A title used to address young men in historical dramas

name

a surname

noun

(Xiang) male (of animals)

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

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