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早生貴子

简早生贵子 · 繁早生貴子

Mandarin · pinyin zǎo shēng guì zǐ

give birth to a son soon (propitiatory compliment to newlyweds)

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Characters in this entry

早: zǎo · early; soon; morning
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
貴: Look up this written character
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
贵: guì · expensive, costly, valuable

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–4–3 · zao3 sheng1 gui4 zi3

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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.

早生貴子 · find source passages ↗ · 早生贵子 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zou2 saang1 gwai3 zi2

Cantonese word readings for 早生貴子. 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) to give birth to a son soon; wish you early birth of a healthy baby (propitiatory compliment to the newly-weds)

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

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