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披荊斬棘

简披荆斩棘 · 繁披荊斬棘

Mandarin · pinyin pī jīng zhǎn jí

lit. to cut one's way through thistles and thorns (idiom)
fig. to overcome all obstacles on the way
to break through hardships
to blaze a new trail

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Characters in this entry

披: pī · wear; split; crack
荊: Look up this written character
斬: Look up this written character
棘: jí · jujube tree; thorns, brambles
荆: jīng · thorns; brambles; my wife; cane
斩: zhǎn · cut, chop, sever; behead

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–3–2 · pi1 jing1 zhan3 ji2

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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.

披荊斬棘 · find source passages ↗ · 披荆斩棘 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

pei1 ging1 zaam2 gik1

Cantonese word readings for 披荊斬棘. 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 overcome different difficulties and obstacles

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

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