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休養生息

简休养生息 · 繁休養生息

Mandarin · pinyin xiū yǎng shēng xī

to recover
to recuperate

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Characters in this entry

休: xiū · rest, stop; retire; do not!
養: yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
息: xī · rest, put stop to, end, cease
养: yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–1–1 · xiu1 yang3 sheng1 xi1

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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.

休養生息 · find source passages ↗ · 休养生息 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jau1 joeng5 sang1 sik1

Cantonese word readings for 休養生息. 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

(of a person) to rest and recuperate; to convalesce; (of society) to recover (after a war or upheaval) and regain vitality

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

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