臨朝

简 临朝 · 繁 臨朝
Mandarin · pinyin lín cháo

Meanings

  1. to hold a court audience
  2. to govern from the imperial throne (applies esp. to Empress Dowager or Regent)
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Characters in this entry

臨
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朝
cháo · dynasty; morning
临
lín · draw near, approach; descend
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–2 · lin2 chao2

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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.

臨朝 · find source passages ↗ · 临朝 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lam4 ciu4

Cantonese word readings for 臨朝. 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

  1. (archaic) to personally attend court; to personally preside at court

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

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

臨朝 · lin2 chao2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 91,641
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record臨朝 临朝 [lin2 chao2] /to hold a court audience/to govern from the imperial throne (applies esp. to Empress Dowager or Regent)/