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下九流

Mandarin · pinyin xià jiǔ liú

the lowest professions

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Characters in this entry

下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
九: jiǔ · nine
流: liú · flow, circulate, drift; class

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2 · xia4 jiu3 liu2

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

haa6 gau2 lau4

Cantonese word readings for 下九流. 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.

noun

(dated) person of low social status and engaged in a "base'" occupation (e.g. actors, prostitutes, yamen runners, porters, barbers, trumpeters, etc.)

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

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