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故事

Mandarin · pinyin gù shì#

old practice

Mandarin · pinyin gù shi#

narrative; story; tale

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Characters in this entry

故: gù · ancient, old; reason, because
事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4 · gu4 shi4

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2character links1same-tone record

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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 · 4 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gu3 si6

Cantonese word readings for 故事. 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

story (sequence of real or fictional events, or an account of such a sequence); tale; narrative; plot (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 段 m; 篇 m; 塊／块 mn)

noun

(archaic) old matter
(archaic) old practice or system; well-established convention or routine
(archaic) accident

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

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