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文人相輕

简文人相轻 · 繁文人相輕

Mandarin · pinyin wén rén xiāng qīng

scholars tend to disparage one another (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

文: wén · literature, culture, writing
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
相: xiāng · mutual, reciprocal, each other
輕: qīng · light; easy, simple; gentle
轻: qīng · light; easy, simple; gentle

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–1–1 · wen2 ren2 xiang1 qing1

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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.

文人相輕 · find source passages ↗ · 文人相轻 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

man4 jan4 soeng1 hing1

Cantonese word readings for 文人相輕. 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) scholars (tend to) disparage one another

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

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