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祖師爺

简祖师爷 · 繁祖師爺

Mandarin · pinyin zǔ shī yé

founder (of a craft, religious sect etc)

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Characters in this entry

祖: zǔ · ancestor, forefather; grandfather
師: shī · teacher, master, specialist; multitude, troops; hexagram ䷆
爺: Look up this written character
师: shī · teacher, master, specialist
爷: yé · father, grandfather

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–2 · zu3 shi1 ye2

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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.

祖師爺 · find source passages ↗ · 祖师爷 · find source passages ↗

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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.

noun

(chiefly male) founder (of a school of learning, or sect of Buddhism or Taoism); patriarch

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

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