不孝有三,無後為大

简 不孝有三,无后为大 · 繁 不孝有三,無後為大
Mandarin · pinyin bù xiào yǒu sān , wú hòu wéi dà

Meanings

  1. there are three ways to be unfilial; having no sons is the worst (from Mencius 孟子 Mèng zǐ)
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Characters in this entry

不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
孝
xiào · filial piety, obedience; mourning
有
yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
三
sān · three
無
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後
hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
為
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大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
无
wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
后
hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after
为
wèi · do, handle, govern, act; be
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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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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不孝有三,無後為大 · bu4 xiao4 you3 san1 , wu2 hou4 wei2 da4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 2,415
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record不孝有三,無後為大 不孝有三,无后为大 [bu4 xiao4 you3 san1 , wu2 hou4 wei2 da4] /there are three ways to be unfilial; having no sons is the worst (from Mencius 孟子[Meng4 zi3])/