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後患無窮

简后患无穷 · 繁後患無窮

Mandarin · pinyin hòu huàn wú qióng

(idiom) there will be no end of trouble in the future

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Characters in this entry

後: hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
患: huàn · suffer, worry about; suffering
無: Look up this written character
窮: Look up this written character
后: hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
穷: qióng · poor, destitute, impoverished

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–2–2 · hou4 huan4 wu2 qiong2

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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.

後患無窮 · find source passages ↗ · 后患无穷 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hau6 waan6 mou4 kung4

Cantonese word readings for 後患無窮. 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 have endless future troubles and calamities

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

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