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文房四寶

简文房四宝 · 繁文房四寶

Mandarin · pinyin wén fáng sì bǎo

Four Treasures of the Study, namely 筆 bǐ, 墨 mò, 紙 zhǐ and 硯 yàn
the essentials of calligraphy and scholarship (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

文: wén · literature, culture, writing
房: fáng · house, building; room; 4th lunar mansion, determinative star π Scorpii
四: sì · four
寶: Look up this written character
宝: bǎo · treasure, jewel; precious, rare

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–3 · wen2 fang2 si4 bao3

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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.

文房四寶 · find source passages ↗ · 文房四宝 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

man4 fong4 sei3 bou2

Cantonese word readings for 文房四寶. 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) Four Treasures of the Study (i.e. brush, ink, paper and inkstone, as used in Chinese and other East Asian painting and calligraphic traditions)

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

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