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孺子可教

Mandarin · pinyin rú zǐ kě jiào

(idiom) this young person is worth teaching (used to praise sb as promising or capable of being taught)

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Characters in this entry

孺: rú · child; blood relation; affection
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
可: kě · may, can, -able; possibly
教: jiào · teach, class

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–3–4 · ru2 zi3 ke3 jiao4

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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 · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jyu4 zi2 ho2 gaau3

Cantonese word readings for 孺子可教. 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

(idiomatic) a young person can be taught

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

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