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白手起家

Mandarin · pinyin bái shǒu qǐ jiā

(idiom) to build up from nothing; to start from scratch

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Characters in this entry

白: bái · white; pure, unblemished; bright
手: shǒu · hand
起: qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
家: jiā · house, home, residence; family

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–3–1 · bai2 shou3 qi3 jia1

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

baak6 sau2 hei2 gaa1

Cantonese word readings for 白手起家. 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 go from rags to riches; to start an enterprise from scratch; to build up from nothing; to start from scratch

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

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