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烽煙四起

简烽烟四起 · 繁烽煙四起

Mandarin · pinyin fēng yān sì qǐ

lit. fire beacons in all four directions (idiom); the confusion of war

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Characters in this entry

烽: fēng · signal fire; signal tower
煙: Look up this written character
四: sì · four
起: qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
烟: yān · smoke, soot; opium; tobacco, cigarettes

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–3 · feng1 yan1 si4 qi3

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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.

烽煙四起 · find source passages ↗ · 烽烟四起 · 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

(idiomatic) to have wars taking place everywhere

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

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