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當仁不讓

简当仁不让 · 繁當仁不讓

Mandarin · pinyin dāng rén bù ràng

to be unwilling to pass on one's responsibilities to others

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Characters in this entry

當: dāng · bear, accept, undertake; just
仁: rén · humaneness, benevolence, kindness
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
讓: Look up this written character
当: dāng · bear, accept, undertake; just
让: ràng · allow, permit, yield, concede

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · dang1 ren2 bu4 rang4

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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.

當仁不讓 · find source passages ↗ · 当仁不让 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

dong1 jan4 bat1 joeng6

Cantonese word readings for 當仁不讓. 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

(idiomatic) to be unwilling to pass on one's responsibilities to others

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

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