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撥浪鼓

简拨浪鼓 · 繁撥浪鼓

Mandarin · pinyin bō lang gǔ

rattle drum; pellet drum – a hand drum with two pellets attached to strings on either side, mounted on a rod that is twirled to make the pellets strike the drum (used in ritual music, as a children's toy or as a street vendor's noisemaker)

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Characters in this entry

撥: Look up this written character
浪: làng · wave; wasteful, reckless
鼓: gǔ · drum; beat, top, strike; Kangxi radical 207
拨: bō · move; dispel; distribute

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

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Mandarin tones

1–5–3 · bo1 lang5 gu3

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3character links1same-tone record

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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.

撥浪鼓 · find source passages ↗ · 拨浪鼓 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

but6 long6 gu2

Cantonese word readings for 撥浪鼓. 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.

noun

(music) pellet drum

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

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