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庸人自擾

简庸人自扰 · 繁庸人自擾

Mandarin · pinyin yōng rén zì rǎo

lit. silly people get their panties in a bunch (idiom)
fig. to get upset over nothing
to make problems for oneself

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Characters in this entry

庸: yōng · usual, common, ordinary, mediocre
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
自: zì · self, private, personal; from; Kangxi radical 132
擾: Look up this written character
扰: rǎo · disturb, annoy, agitate

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–3 · yong1 ren2 zi4 rao3

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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.

庸人自擾 · find source passages ↗ · 庸人自扰 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jung4 jan4 zi6 jiu2

Cantonese word readings for 庸人自擾. 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) to ask for trouble for no reason; to get one's panties in a bunch

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

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