往古

Mandarin · pinyin wǎng gǔ

Meanings

  1. in former times
  2. in olden days
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Characters in this entry

往
wǎng · go, depart; past, formerly
古
gǔ · old, classic, ancient
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3 · wang3 gu3

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

  1. (literary or Dehua Hokkien) the past; in ancient times

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

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