DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

江洋大盜

简江洋大盗 · 繁江洋大盜

Mandarin · pinyin jiāng yáng dà dào

(idiom) infamous pirate; (by extension) notorious bandit or robber

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

江: jiāng · large river; the Yangzi; surname
洋: yáng · ocean, sea; foreign; western
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
盜: Look up this written character
盗: dào · rob, steal; thief, bandit

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · jiang1 yang2 da4 dao4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

江洋大盜 · find source passages ↗ · 江洋大盗 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) infamous pirate; (by extension) notorious bandit or robber

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

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