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孔子

Mandarin · pinyin Kǒng zǐ

Confucius (551-479 BC), Chinese thinker and social philosopher, also known as 孔夫子 Kǒng fū zǐ

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Characters in this entry

孔: kǒng · opening, hole, orifice; great
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

3–3 · Kong3 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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hung2 zi2

Cantonese word readings for 孔子. 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.

name

Confucius

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

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