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古今中外

Mandarin · pinyin gǔ jīn zhōng wài

at all times and in all places (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

古: gǔ · old, classic, ancient
今: jīn · now, today, modern era
中: zhōng · central; center, middle; in the midst of; hit (target); attain
外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–1–4 · gu3 jin1 zhong1 wai4

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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 gam1 zung1 ngoi6

Cantonese word readings for 古今中外. 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) ancient and modern, Chinese and abroad; all times and all places

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

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