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明辨是非

Mandarin · pinyin míng biàn shì fēi

to distinguish right and wrong (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

明: míng · bright, light, brilliant; clear
辨: biàn · distinguish, discriminate
是: shì · indeed, yes, right; to be; demonstrative pronoun, this, that
非: fēi · not, negative, non-; oppose; Kangxi radical 175

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–4–1 · ming2 bian4 shi4 fei1

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to know right from wrong; to distinguish between right and wrong

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

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