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利令智昏

Mandarin · pinyin lì lìng zhì hūn

to lose one's head through material greed (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

利: lì · gains, advantage, profit, merit
令: lìng · command, order; 'commandant', magistrate; allow, cause
智: zhì · wisdom, knowledge, intelligence
昏: hūn · dusk, nightfall, twilight, dark

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–1 · li4 ling4 zhi4 hun1

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lei6 ling6 zi3 fan1

Cantonese word readings for 利令智昏. 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) to be blinded by the lust for gains; to lose one's head because of greed

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

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