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土司

Mandarin · pinyin tǔ sī

sliced bread (loanword from "toast")
government-appointed hereditary tribal headman in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties

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Characters in this entry

土: tǔ · soil, earth; items made of earth
司: sī · take charge of, control, manage; officer

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1 · tu3 si1

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tou2 si1

Cantonese word readings for 土司. 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 · Etymology 1

(historical) the system of Chinese ethnic minority hierarchies in which power is passed on according to hereditary relationships
(historical) a chieftain in such a position of power

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

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