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別無長物

简别无长物 · 繁別無長物

Mandarin · pinyin bié wú cháng wù

to possess nothing except bare necessities
to live a poor or frugal life

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Characters in this entry

別: Look up this written character
無: Look up this written character
長: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader; Kangxi radical 168
物: wù · thing, substance, creature
别: bié · separate, other; do not
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
长: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–2–4 · bie2 wu2 chang2 wu4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to have nothing except

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

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