DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

剛正不阿

简刚正不阿 · 繁剛正不阿

Mandarin · pinyin gāng zhèng bù ē

upright and plainspoken

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

剛: Look up this written character
正: zhèng · right, proper, correct
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
阿: ā · prefix for people's names; used in transliteration
刚: gāng · hard, tough, rigid, strong

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–4–4–1 · gang1 zheng4 bu4 e1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

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.

剛正不阿 · find source passages ↗ · 刚正不阿 · 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to be upright and not flatter; to be righteous and not curry favor with others

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

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