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不甘後人

简不甘后人 · 繁不甘後人

Mandarin · pinyin bù gān hòu rén

(idiom) not want to be outdone
not content to lag behind

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Characters in this entry

不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
甘: gān · sweetness; sweet, tasty
後: hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
后: hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–4–2 · bu4 gan1 hou4 ren2

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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.

不甘後人 · find source passages ↗ · 不甘后人 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bat1 gam1 hau6 jan4

Cantonese word readings for 不甘後人. 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

(idiomatic) to not be content to lag behind; to hate being outdone; to be not content to fall behind or not exceed

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

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