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牝雞司晨

简牝鸡司晨 · 繁牝雞司晨

Mandarin · pinyin pìn jī sī chén

female chicken crows at daybreak (idiom); a woman usurps authority
women meddle in politics
The female wears the trousers.

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Characters in this entry

牝: pìn · female of species; deep gorge
雞: jī · chickens; domestic fowl
司: sī · take charge of, control, manage; officer
晨: chén · early morning, daybreak
鸡: jī · chicken

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–1–2 · pin4 ji1 si1 chen2

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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.

牝雞司晨 · find source passages ↗ · 牝鸡司晨 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

pan5 gai1 si1 san4

Cantonese word readings for 牝雞司晨. 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

(figurative, derogatory) a woman usurps authority, women meddle in politics, the female wears the trousers.

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

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