獨善其身

简 独善其身 · 繁 獨善其身
Mandarin · pinyin dú shàn qí shēn

Meanings

  1. (idiom) (originally, in Mencius) to cultivate one's moral character in solitude; (modern sense) to look after only one's own interests
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Characters in this entry

獨
Look up this written character
善
shàn · good, virtuous, charitable, kind
其
qí · his, her, its, their; that
身
shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
独
dú · alone, single, solitary, only
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–4–2–1 · du2 shan4 qi2 shen1

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

duk6 sin6 kei4 san1

Cantonese word readings for 獨善其身. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

獨善其身 · du2 shan4 qi2 shen1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 72,672
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record獨善其身 独善其身 [du2 shan4 qi2 shen1] /(idiom) (originally, in Mencius) to cultivate one's moral character in solitude; (modern sense) to look after only one's own interests/