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相夫教子

Mandarin · pinyin xiàng fū jiào zǐ

to assist one's husband and educate the children (idiom)
the traditional roles of a good wife

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Characters in this entry

相: xiāng · mutual, reciprocal, each other
夫: fū · man, male adult, husband; those
教: jiào · teach, class
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–4–3 · xiang4 fu1 jiao4 zi3

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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

soeng3 fu1 gaau3 zi2

Cantonese word readings for 相夫教子. 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

(of a woman) to support one's husband and teach one's children

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

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