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古人

Mandarin · pinyin gǔ rén

people of ancient times
the ancients
extinct human species such as Homo erectus or Homo neanderthalensis
(literary) deceased person

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Characters in this entry

古: gǔ · old, classic, ancient
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2 · gu3 ren2

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gu2 jan4

Cantonese word readings for 古人. 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.

noun

the ancients; people from ancient times; forefathers
(anthropology) early man; Homo sapiens
(euphemistic) someone who has passed away

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

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