幽明

Mandarin · pinyin yōu míng

Meanings

  1. the hidden and the visible; that which can be seen and that which cannot; darkness and light; night and day; wisdom and ignorance; evil and good; the living and the dead; men and ghosts
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Characters in this entry

幽
yōu · quiet, secluded, tranquil; dark
明
míng · bright, light, brilliant; clear
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–2 · you1 ming2

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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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幽明 · you1 ming2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 38,171
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record幽明 幽明 [you1 ming2] /the hidden and the visible; that which can be seen and that which cannot; darkness and light; night and day; wisdom and ignorance; evil and good; the living and the dead; men and ghosts/