曲直

Mandarin · pinyin qū zhí

Meanings

  1. lit. crooked and straight
  2. fig. right and wrong, good and evil
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

曲
qū · crooked, bent; wrong, false
直
zhí · straight, erect, vertical
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–2 · qu1 zhi2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

曲直 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

  1. bent and straight
  2. right and wrong; reasonable and unreasonable

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack