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孤魂野鬼

Mandarin · pinyin gū hún yě guǐ

wandering ghosts without living descendants to pray for them (idiom)
person who has no family or friends to rely on

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Characters in this entry

孤: gū · orphan, fatherless; solitary
魂: hún · soul, spirit
野: yě · open country, field; wilderness
鬼: guǐ · ghost; spirit of dead; devil; Kangxi radical 194; 23rd lunar mansion, determinative star θ Cancri

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–3–3 · gu1 hun2 ye3 gui3

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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 · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gu1 wan4 je5 gwai2

Cantonese word readings for 孤魂野鬼. 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.

phrase

(religion) wandering soul that is unable to reincarnate
(figurative) one who is in difficult circumstances and has nobody to lean on

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

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