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土皇帝

Mandarin · pinyin tǔ huáng dì

local tyrant

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Characters in this entry

土: tǔ · soil, earth; items made of earth
皇: huáng · royal, imperial; ruler, superior
帝: dì · supreme ruler, emperor; god

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2–4 · tu3 huang2 di4

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tou2 wong4 dai3

Cantonese word readings for 土皇帝. 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

local tyrant; warlord or despot that rules over a certain area

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

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