DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

修煉

简修炼 · 繁修煉

Mandarin · pinyin xiū liàn

(of Taoists) to practice austerities
to practice asceticism

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

修: xiū · study; repair; cultivate
煉: Look up this written character
炼: liàn · smelt, refine; distill, condense

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–4 · xiu1 lian4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links1same-tone record

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

修煉 · find source passages ↗ · 修炼 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

(Taoism) to meditate
(by extension) to practice asceticism

noun

(Taoism) meditation, especially in the hope of magically creating immortality elixir or philter
(by extension) any form of meditation or practice of asceticism; cultivation practice

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack