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前不著村,後不著店
简 前不着村,后不着店 · 繁 前不著村,後不著店Mandarin · pinyin qián bù zháo cūn , hòu bù zháo diàn
Meanings
- lit. no village ahead and no inn behind (idiom)
- fig. to be stranded in the middle of nowhere
- to be in a predicament
Characters in this entry
- 前
- qián · in front, forward; preceding
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 著
- zhù · zhe · manifest; (Cant.) to wear
- 村
- cūn · village, hamlet; uncouth, vulgar
- 後
- hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
- 店
- diàn · shop, store; inn, hotel
- 着
- zhe · make move, take action
- 后
- hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after
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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.
前不著村,後不著店 · find source passages ↗ · 前不着村,后不着店 · find source passages ↗