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文言

Mandarin · pinyin wén yán

Classical Chinese

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文: wén · literature, culture, writing
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2 · wen2 yan2

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2character 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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 3 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

man4 jin4

Cantonese word readings for 文言. 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

Literary Chinese (literary language used from the fall of the Han dynasty (220 C.E.) to the early 20th century)
Classical Chinese (literary language used in old China)

name

name of a section in the Ten Wings, attributed to Confucius (commentaries to the first and second trigrams, i.e. qian and kun, in the Book of Changes)

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

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