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告老還鄉

简告老还乡 · 繁告老還鄉

Mandarin · pinyin gào lǎo huán xiāng

(idiom) to retire from official service due to old age and return to one's hometown

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Characters in this entry

告: gào · tell, announce, inform; accuse
老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
還: hái · still, yet, also, besides
鄉: Look up this written character
还: hái · still, yet, also, besides
乡: xiāng · country; rural; village

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2–1 · gao4 lao3 huan2 xiang1

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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.

告老還鄉 · find source passages ↗ · 告老还乡 · find source passages ↗

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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

(of an official) to retire and return to one's native place

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

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