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生員

简生员 · 繁生員

Mandarin · pinyin shēng yuán

scholar preparing for imperial examinations (in former times)

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Characters in this entry

生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
員: Look up this written character
员: yuán · member; personnel, staff member

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2 · sheng1 yuan2

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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.

生員 · find source passages ↗ · 生员 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sang1 jyun4

Cantonese word readings for 生員. 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

(historical) person who has passed the imperial examination at the county level
(literary) number of enrolled students

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

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