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乾柴烈火

简干柴烈火 · 繁乾柴烈火

Mandarin · pinyin gān chái liè huǒ

(idiom) explosive mutual passion; blaze of passion (esp. between lovers)

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Characters in this entry

乾: qián · gān · dry; warming principle of the sun, penetrating and fertilizing, heavenly generative principle (male); trigram ☰; hexagram ䷀
柴: chái · firewood, faggots, fuel
烈: liè · fiery, violent, vehement, ardent
火: huǒ · fire, flame; burn; anger, rage
干: gàn · oppose, offend; invade; dried

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–3 · gan1 chai2 lie4 huo3

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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.

乾柴烈火 · find source passages ↗ · 干柴烈火 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gon1 caai4 lit6 fo2

Cantonese word readings for 乾柴烈火. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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