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後車之鑒

简后车之鉴 · 繁後車之鑒

Mandarin · pinyin hòu chē zhī jiàn

lit. warning to the following cart (idiom); don't follow the track of an overturned cart
fig. draw lesson from the failure of one's predecessor
learn from past mistake
once bitten twice shy

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Characters in this entry

後: hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
車: chē · cart, vehicle; carry in a cart; Kangxi radical 159
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
鑒: Look up this written character
后: hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after
车: chē · cart, vehicle; carry in cart
鉴: jiàn · mirror, looking glass; reflect

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–1–4 · hou4 che1 zhi1 jian4

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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.

後車之鑒 · find source passages ↗ · 后车之鉴 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hau6 ce1 zi1 gaam3

Cantonese word readings for 後車之鑒. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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