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玄之又玄

Mandarin · pinyin xuán zhī yòu xuán

mystery within a mystery
the mysteries of the Dao according to Laozi 老子 Lǎo zǐ

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Characters in this entry

玄: xuán · deep, profound, abstruse; Kangxi radical 95
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
又: yòu · and, also, again, in addition

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Mandarin tones

2–1–4–2 · xuan2 zhi1 you4 xuan2

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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.

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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

(idiomatic) extremely profound and mysterious

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

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