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牡丹雖好，全仗綠葉扶持

简牡丹虽好，全仗绿叶扶持 · 繁牡丹雖好，全仗綠葉扶持

Mandarin · pinyin mǔ dan suī hǎo , quán zhàng lǜ yè fú chí

Although the peony is beautiful, it depends entirely on help from the green leaves (idiom). However brilliant you may be, you can't do anything without support from others.

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Characters in this entry

牡: mǔ · male of animals; bolt of door
丹: dān · cinnabar (native HgS); vermilion (artificial HgS used as pigment)
雖: Look up this written character
好: hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
全: quán · maintain, keep whole or intact
仗: zhàng · rely upon; protector; fight; war, weaponry
綠: lǜ · green; chlorine
葉: yè · leaf, petal; page of book; period
扶: fú · support, help; protect; hold on
持: chí · sustain, support; hold, grasp
虽: suī · although, even if
绿: lǜ · green; chlorine
叶: yè · to harmonize, to rhyme; to unite; (borrowed for) leaf

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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.

牡丹雖好，全仗綠葉扶持 · find source passages ↗ · 牡丹虽好，全仗绿叶扶持 · find source passages ↗

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