三顧茅廬
简 三顾茅庐 · 繁 三顧茅廬Meanings
- lit. to make three visits to the thatched cottage (idiom) (allusion to an episode in Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義 Sān guó Yǎn yì in which Liu Bei 劉備 Liú Bèi recruits Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮 Zhū gě Liàng to his cause by visiting him three times)
- fig. to make earnest and repeated requests of sb
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Mandarin tones
1–4–2–2 · san1 gu4 mao2 lu2
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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.
三顧茅廬 · find source passages ↗ · 三顾茅庐 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
saam1 gu3 maau4 lou4
Cantonese word readings for 三顧茅廬. 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
- (figurative) to sincerely and repeatedly request someone to take up a post
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
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