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小人

Mandarin · pinyin xiǎo rén

person of low social status (old)
I, me (used to refer humbly to oneself)
nasty person
vile character

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Characters in this entry

小: xiǎo · small, tiny, insignificant
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2 · xiao3 ren2

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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 · 7 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

siu2 jan4

Cantonese word readings for 小人. 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.

noun

scoundrel; villain; vile character
(dated, humble) I; me
(archaic) person of low position; commoner; nobody
(Classical) small-minded person or person of low moral qualities
(dialectal Mandarin, Wu) child; kid
miniature depiction of a person
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see 小 (xiǎo), 人 (rén).

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

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