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夜闌人靜

简夜阑人静 · 繁夜闌人靜

Mandarin · pinyin yè lán rén jìng

the still of the night (idiom)
late at night

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Characters in this entry

夜: yè · night, dark; in night; by night
闌: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
靜: Look up this written character
阑: lán · door screen; railing fence
静: jìng · quiet, still, motionless; gentle

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–2–4 · ye4 lan2 ren2 jing4

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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.

夜闌人靜 · find source passages ↗ · 夜阑人静 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

je6 laan4 jan4 zing6

Cantonese word readings for 夜闌人靜. 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.

adv

in the still of the night

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

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