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夜郎自大

Mandarin · pinyin Yè láng zì dà

lit. Yelang thinks highly of itself (idiom)
fig. foolish conceit

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Characters in this entry

夜: yè · night, dark; in night; by night
郎: láng · gentleman, young man; husband
自: zì · self, private, personal; from; Kangxi radical 132
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–4–4 · Ye4 lang2 zi4 da4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to be ignorant and arrogant; to be self-deluded

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

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