DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

牡丹雖好，終須綠葉扶持

简牡丹虽好，终须绿叶扶持 · 繁牡丹雖好，終須綠葉扶持

Mandarin · pinyin mǔ dan suī hǎo , zhōng xū 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.

Full entryShow on map

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
終: Look up this written character
須: Look up this written character
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
终: zhōng · end; finally, in the end
须: xū · must, have to, necessary
绿: lǜ · green; chlorine
叶: yè · to harmonize, to rhyme; to unite; (borrowed for) leaf

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

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

12character 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.

牡丹雖好，終須綠葉扶持 · find source passages ↗ · 牡丹虽好，终须绿叶扶持 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗