三妻四妾

Mandarin · pinyin sān qī sì qiè

Meanings

  1. (idiom) to have many wives and concubines; to have a harem
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Characters in this entry

三
sān · three
妻
qī · wife
四
sì · four
妾
qiè · concubine
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4 · san1 qi1 si4 qie4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) to have many wives and concubines

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

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