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升斗小民

Mandarin · pinyin shēng dǒu xiǎo mín

(idiom) poor people; those who live from hand to mouth

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Characters in this entry

升: shēng · arise, go up; hoist; advance; hexagram ䷭
斗: dòu · dǒu · a dipper; unit of volume (ten 升 or litres); Kangxi radical 68; 8th lunar mansion, determinative star φ Sagittarii
小: xiǎo · small, tiny, insignificant
民: mín · people, subjects, citizens

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–3–2 · sheng1 dou3 xiao3 min2

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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 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sing1 dau2 siu2 man4

Cantonese word readings for 升斗小民. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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