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厚古薄今

Mandarin · pinyin hòu gǔ bó jīn

to revere the past and neglect the present (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

厚: hòu · thick; substantial; greatly
古: gǔ · old, classic, ancient
薄: báo · bó · thin, slight, weak; poor, stingy
今: jīn · now, today, modern era

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2–1 · hou4 gu3 bo2 jin1

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hau5 gu2 bok6 gam1

Cantonese word readings for 厚古薄今. 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 set great store by the past but look down on the present

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

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