坐觀成敗

简 坐观成败 · 繁 坐觀成敗
Mandarin · pinyin zuò guān chéng bài

Meanings

  1. to sit and await success or failure (idiom); to wait to see the outcome of a fight before taking sides
  2. to sit on the fence
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Characters in this entry

坐
zuò · sit; seat; ride, travel by
觀
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成
chéng · completed, finished, fixed
敗
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观
guān · see, observe, view; appearance
败
bài · be defeated, decline, fail
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1–2–4 · zuo4 guan1 cheng2 bai4

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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.

坐觀成敗 · find source passages ↗ · 坐观成败 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zo6 gun1 sing4 baai6

Cantonese word readings for 坐觀成敗. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

坐觀成敗 · zuo4 guan1 cheng2 bai4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 25,386
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record坐觀成敗 坐观成败 [zuo4 guan1 cheng2 bai4] /to sit and await success or failure (idiom); to wait to see the outcome of a fight before taking sides/to sit on the fence/