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天演

Mandarin · pinyin tiān yǎn

natural change
evolution (early translation, since replaced by 進化)

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Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
演: yǎn · perform, put on; exercise

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3 · tian1 yan3

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2character links1same-tone record

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

(dated) evolution

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

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