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白衣蒼狗

简白衣苍狗 · 繁白衣蒼狗

Mandarin · pinyin bái yī cāng gǒu

lit. (cloud shapes) changing from a white shirt to a gray dog (idiom)
fig. the unpredictable changeability of the world

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Characters in this entry

白: bái · white; pure, unblemished; bright
衣: yī · clothes, clothing; cover, skin; Kangxi radical 145
蒼: Look up this written character
狗: gǒu · dog, Canis familiaris
苍: cāng · blue; green

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–1–3 · bai2 yi1 cang1 gou3

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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.

白衣蒼狗 · find source passages ↗ · 白衣苍狗 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

baak6 ji1 cong1 gau2

Cantonese word readings for 白衣蒼狗. 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) freakishness; changeable and strange; changes in human affairs often take freakish forms

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

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