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去蕪存菁

简去芜存菁 · 繁去蕪存菁

Mandarin · pinyin qù wú cún jīng

lit. to get rid of the weeds and keep the flowers
to separate the wheat from the chaff (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

去: qù · go away, leave, depart
蕪: Look up this written character
存: cún · exist, live, be; survive; remain
菁: jīng · flower of leek family; turnip
芜: wú · luxurious growth of weeds

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–2–1 · qu4 wu2 cun2 jing1

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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.

去蕪存菁 · find source passages ↗ · 去芜存菁 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

heoi3 mou4 cyun4 cing1

Cantonese word readings for 去蕪存菁. 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 separate the wheat from the chaff

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

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