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毛遂自薦

简毛遂自荐 · 繁毛遂自薦

Mandarin · pinyin Máo Suì zì jiàn

Mao Sui recommends himself (idiom); to offer one's services (in the style of Mao Sui offering his services to king of Chu 楚 of the Warring states)

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Characters in this entry

毛: máo · hair, fur, feathers; coarse
遂: suì · comply with, follow along; thereupon
自: zì · self, private, personal; from; Kangxi radical 132
薦: Look up this written character
荐: jiàn · repeat, reoccur; recommend

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–4–4 · Mao2 Sui4 zi4 jian4

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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.

毛遂自薦 · find source passages ↗ · 毛遂自荐 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mou4 seoi6 zi6 zin3

Cantonese word readings for 毛遂自薦. 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 recommend oneself; to put oneself up for a task; to nominate oneself; to volunteer; to offer one's services

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

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