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爭

简争 · 繁爭

Mandarin · pinyin zhēng

to strive for
to vie for
to argue or debate
deficient or lacking (dialect)
how or what (literary)

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Characters in this entry

爭: Look up this written character
争: zhēng · dispute, fight, contend, strive

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

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Mandarin tones

1 · zheng1

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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.

爭 · find source passages ↗ · 争 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caang1 · zaang1 · zang1

Cantonese word readings for 爭. 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.

character

to dispute; to fight
to contend
to strive
(dialectal Mandarin, Cantonese, dialectal Hakka, Jin, dialectal Min, Southern Wu) to lack; to be missing; still have; remaining
(Cantonese) to have a difference (expressed in conjunction with terms of physical distance)
(Ürümqi Mandarin) argumentative
(Ürümqi Mandarin) to open up
(dialectal) to owe
(Wanrong Mandarin) because; due to; so that
(Wanrong Mandarin) capable
(Suzhounese, Dongguan Cantonese) to argue for the sake of arguing
(Wenzhounese) different
(Jinhua Wu) to have reservations
25th tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "contention" (𝌞)
why, how

character

(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) original form of 諍／诤 (zhèng, “to admonish”)

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

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