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樂不思蜀

简乐不思蜀 · 繁樂不思蜀

Mandarin · pinyin lè bù sī Shǔ

indulge in pleasure and forget home and duty (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

樂: lè · happy, glad; enjoyable; music
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
思: sī · think, consider, ponder; final particle
蜀: shǔ · one of the Three Kingdoms, established by Liu Bei
乐: lè · happy, glad; enjoyable; music

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–1–3 · le4 bu4 si1 Shu3

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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.

樂不思蜀 · find source passages ↗ · 乐不思蜀 · find source passages ↗

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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

(derogatory) to have so much fun that one forgets one's origins, or that one has to return; to indulge in pleasure and forget home and duty; to be too happy to be homesick

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

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