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焚琴煮鶴

简焚琴煮鹤 · 繁焚琴煮鶴

Mandarin · pinyin fén qín zhǔ hè

lit. to burn zithers and cook cranes
fig. to waste valuable resources
to destroy wantonly beautiful things

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Characters in this entry

焚: fén · burn
琴: qín · Chinese lute or guitar
煮: zhǔ · cook
鶴: Look up this written character
鹤: hè · crane; Grus species (various)

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–3–4 · fen2 qin2 zhu3 he4

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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.

焚琴煮鶴 · find source passages ↗ · 焚琴煮鹤 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fan4 kam4 zyu2 hok6

Cantonese word readings for 焚琴煮鶴. 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

(figuratively) vulgar, tasteless behaviors that spoil elegant or beautiful things

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

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