斷袖之癖
简 断袖之癖 · 繁 斷袖之癖Meanings
- lit. cut sleeve (idiom); fig. euphemism for homosexuality, originating from History of Western Han 漢書: emperor Han Aidi (real name Liu Xin) was in bed with his lover Dong Xian, and had to attend a court audience that morning. Not wishing to awaken Dong Xian, who was sleeping with his head resting on the emperor's long robe sleeve, Aidi used a knife to cut off the lower half of his sleeve.
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Mandarin tones
4–4–1–3 · duan4 xiu4 zhi1 pi3
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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.
斷袖之癖 · find source passages ↗ · 断袖之癖 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
dyun6 zau6 zi1 pik1
Cantonese word readings for 斷袖之癖. 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
- (figurative) male homosexuality
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
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