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五瘟神

Mandarin · pinyin wǔ wēn shén

five chief demons of folklore personifying pestilence
cf four horsemen of the apocalypse

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Characters in this entry

五: wǔ · five; surname
瘟: wēn · epidemic, plague, pestilence
神: shén · spirit, god, supernatural being

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Mandarin tones

3–1–2 · wu3 wen1 shen2

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ng5 wan1 san4

Cantonese word readings for 五瘟神. 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

(mythology) five chief demons of folklore personifying pestilence

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

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