不忮不求

Mandarin · pinyin bù zhì bù qiú

Meanings

  1. (idiom) to be free of jealousy or greed
  2. to live a simple life, free from worldly desires
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Characters in this entry

不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
忮
zhì · stubborn; perverse; aggressive
求
qiú · seek; demand, request; beseech
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–2 · bu4 zhi4 bu4 qiu2

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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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不忮不求 · bu4 zhi4 bu4 qiu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 2,491
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record不忮不求 不忮不求 [bu4 zhi4 bu4 qiu2] /(idiom) to be free of jealousy or greed/to live a simple life, free from worldly desires/