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發人深省

简发人深省 · 繁發人深省

Mandarin · pinyin fā rén shēn xǐng

to provide food for thought (idiom)
thought-provoking

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Characters in this entry

發: fā · issue, dispatch, send out, emit
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
深: shēn · deep; depth; far; very, extreme
省: shěng · province; save, economize
发: fā · issue, dispatch, send out; hair

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–1–3 · fa1 ren2 shen1 xing3

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5character links1same-tone record

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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.

發人深省 · find source passages ↗ · 发人深省 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

faat3 jan4 sam1 sing2

Cantonese word readings for 發人深省. 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 set people thinking; to call for deep thought

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

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