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倒懸之苦

简倒悬之苦 · 繁倒懸之苦

Mandarin · pinyin dào xuán zhī kǔ

lit. the pain of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation
dire straits

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Characters in this entry

倒: dào · fall over; lie down; take turns
懸: Look up this written character
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
悬: xuán · hang, suspend, hoist; be hung

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–1–3 · dao4 xuan2 zhi1 ku3

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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.

倒懸之苦 · find source passages ↗ · 倒悬之苦 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

dou3 jyun4 zi1 fu2

Cantonese word readings for 倒懸之苦. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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