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地牛翻身

Mandarin · pinyin dì niú fān shēn

(Tw) (coll.) earthquake (According to a folk tale, earthquakes are caused by the occasional movements of an ox that lives under the earth.)

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Characters in this entry

地: de · dì · earth; soil, ground; region
牛: niú · cow, ox, bull; Kangxi radical 93; 9th lunar mansion, determinative star β Capricorni (Dabih)
翻: fān · flip over, upset, capsize
身: shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–1–1 · di4 niu2 fan1 shen1

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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

dei6 ngau4 faan1 san1

Cantonese word readings for 地牛翻身. 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.

verb

(Hokkien, Taiwanese Mandarin, Taiwanese Hakka, figurative) to have an earthquake

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

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