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望子成龍

简望子成龙 · 繁望子成龍

Mandarin · pinyin wàng zǐ chéng lóng

lit. to hope one's son becomes a dragon (idiom); fig. to long for one' s child to succeed in life
to have great hopes for one's offspring
to give one's child the best education as a career investment

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Characters in this entry

望: wàng · to look at, look forward; to hope, expect
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
成: chéng · completed, finished, fixed
龍: Look up this written character
龙: lóng · dragon; symbolic of emperor

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2–2 · wang4 zi3 cheng2 long2

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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.

望子成龍 · find source passages ↗ · 望子成龙 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mong6 zi2 sing4 lung4

Cantonese word readings for 望子成龍. 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 hope that one's child succeeds in life

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

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