吳市吹簫

简 吴市吹箫 · 繁 吳市吹簫
Mandarin · pinyin wú shì chuī xiāo

Meanings

  1. (idiom) to beg on the streets; to fall into utter destitution (allusion to Wu Zixu's 伍子胥 Wǔ Zǐ xū exile and humiliation as described in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" 史記 Shǐ jì)
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Characters in this entry

吳
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市
shì · market, fair; city, town; trade
吹
chuī · blow; puff; brag, boast
簫
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吴
wú · name of warring state; surname
箫
xiāo · bamboo flute
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–4–1–1 · wu2 shi4 chui1 xiao1

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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.

吳市吹簫 · find source passages ↗ · 吴市吹箫 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ng4 si5 ceoi1 siu1

Cantonese word readings for 吳市吹簫. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

吳市吹簫 · wu2 shi4 chui1 xiao1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 20,630
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record吳市吹簫 吴市吹箫 [wu2 shi4 chui1 xiao1] /(idiom) to beg on the streets; to fall into utter destitution (allusion to Wu Zixu's 伍子胥[Wu3 Zi3 xu1] exile and humiliation as described in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" 史記|史记[Shi3 ji4])/