DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

真偽莫辨

简真伪莫辨 · 繁真偽莫辨

Mandarin · pinyin zhēn wěi mò biàn

can't judge true or false (idiom); unable to distinguish the genuine from the fake
not to know whether to believe (what one reads in the news)

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Characters in this entry

真: zhēn · real, actual, true, genuine
偽: Look up this written character
莫: mò · do not, is not, can not; negative
辨: biàn · distinguish, discriminate
伪: wěi · false, counterfeit, bogus

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–4 · zhen1 wei3 mo4 bian4

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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.

真偽莫辨 · find source passages ↗ · 真伪莫辨 · find source passages ↗

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