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旁門左道

简旁门左道 · 繁旁門左道

Mandarin · pinyin páng mén zuǒ dào

dissenting religious sect (idiom); heretical school of opinion
dissident group

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Characters in this entry

旁: páng · side; by side, close by, near
門: mén · gate, door, entrance, opening; Kangxi radical 169
左: zuǒ · left; east; unorthodox, improper
道: dào · path, road, street; method, way
门: mén · gate, door, entrance, opening

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–3–4 · pang2 men2 zuo3 dao4

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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.

旁門左道 · find source passages ↗ · 旁门左道 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

pong4 mun4 zo2 dou6

Cantonese word readings for 旁門左道. 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) trickery; deviousness; underhandedness

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

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