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羽化

Mandarin · pinyin yǔ huà

levitation (of Daoist immortal)
to become as light as a feather and ascend to heaven
(in Daoism) to become immortal
to die
of winged insects, to emerge from the cocoon in adult form
eclosion

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Characters in this entry

羽: yǔ · feather, plume; wings; Kangxi radical 124
化: huà · change, convert, reform; -ize

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4 · yu3 hua4

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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 · 3 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jyu5 faa3

Cantonese word readings for 羽化. 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.

verb

to ascend to heaven and become an immortal
(Taoism, euphemistic) to die; to pass away
(zoology) to eclose; to undergo eclosion

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

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