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人之常情

Mandarin · pinyin rén zhī cháng qíng

human nature (idiom)
a behavior that is only natural

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Characters in this entry

人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
常: cháng · common, normal, frequent, regular
情: qíng · feeling, sentiment, emotion

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–2–2 · ren2 zhi1 chang2 qing2

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jan4 zi1 soeng4 cing4

Cantonese word readings for 人之常情. 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) human nature; what is natural and normal in human relationships; it's only human

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

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