捨己為公

简 舍己为公 · 繁 捨己為公
Mandarin · pinyin shě jǐ wèi gōng

Meanings

  1. to give up one's private interests for the public good (idiom); to behave altruistically
  2. selfless and public spirited
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Characters in this entry

捨
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己
jǐ · self, oneself; personal, private; 6th heavenly stem
為
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公
gōng · fair, equitable; public; duke
舍
shě · shè · house, dwelling; dwell, reside
为
wèi · do, handle, govern, act; be
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3–4–1 · she3 ji3 wei4 gong1

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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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捨己為公 · she3 ji3 wei4 gong1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 47,341
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record捨己為公 舍己为公 [she3 ji3 wei4 gong1] /to give up one's private interests for the public good (idiom); to behave altruistically/selfless and public spirited/