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暢所欲言

简畅所欲言 · 繁暢所欲言

Mandarin · pinyin chàng suǒ yù yán

lit. fluently saying all one wants (idiom); to preach freely on one's favorite topic
to hold forth to one's heart's content

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Characters in this entry

暢: Look up this written character
所: suǒ · place, location; numerary adjunct
欲: yù · desire, want, long for; intend
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149
畅: chàng · smoothly, freely, unrestrained

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–4–2 · chang4 suo3 yu4 yan2

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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.

暢所欲言 · find source passages ↗ · 畅所欲言 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

coeng3 so2 juk6 jin4

Cantonese word readings for 暢所欲言. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to speak freely; to say freely what one wants to say

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

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