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人情世故

Mandarin · pinyin rén qíng shì gù

worldly wisdom
the ways of the world
to know how to get on in the world

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Characters in this entry

人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
情: qíng · feeling, sentiment, emotion
世: shì · generation; world; era
故: gù · ancient, old; reason, because

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–4 · ren2 qing2 shi4 gu4

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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 cing4 sai3 gu3

Cantonese word readings for 人情世故. 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) the ways of the world; traditional code of conduct; worldly wisdom

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

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