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斷子絕孫

简断子绝孙 · 繁斷子絕孫

Mandarin · pinyin duàn zǐ jué sūn

to die without progeny
(offensive) may you die childless
may you be the last of your family line

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Characters in this entry

斷: Look up this written character
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
絕: Look up this written character
孫: Look up this written character
断: duàn · sever, cut off; interrupt
绝: jué · to cut, sever, break off, terminate
孙: sūn · grandchild, descendent; surname

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2–1 · duan4 zi3 jue2 sun1

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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.

斷子絕孫 · find source passages ↗ · 断子绝孙 · find source passages ↗

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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

(often as a curse) to have no descendants

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

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