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一板三眼

Mandarin · pinyin yī bǎn sān yǎn

lit. one strong beat and three weak beats in a measure of music (four beats in the bar) (idiom); fig. scrupulous attention to detail

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Characters in this entry

一: yī · one; a, an; alone
板: bǎn · plank, board; iron or tin plate
三: sān · three
眼: yǎn · eye; eyelet, hole, opening

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–1–3 · yi1 ban3 san1 yan3

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jat1 baan2 saam1 ngaan5

Cantonese word readings for 一板三眼. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) synonym of 一板一眼 (yībǎnyīyǎn, “scrupulous and methodical”)

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

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