本分

Mandarin · pinyin běn fèn

Meanings

  1. (to play) one's part
  2. one's role
  3. one's duty
  4. (to stay within) one's bounds
  5. dutiful
  6. keeping to one's role
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Characters in this entry

本
běn · root, origin, source; basis
分
fēn · divide; small unit of time etc.
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–4 · ben3 fen4

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bun2 fan6

Cantonese word readings for 本分. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

  1. one's part, role or duty

verb

  1. to play one's part, role or duty
  2. to stay within one's bounds

adj

  1. honest; decent (of a person)

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

本分 · ben3 fen4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 55,744
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record本分 本分 [ben3 fen4] /(to play) one's part/one's role/one's duty/(to stay within) one's bounds/dutiful/keeping to one's role/