DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

籠鳥檻猿

简笼鸟槛猿 · 繁籠鳥檻猿

Mandarin · pinyin lóng niǎo jiàn yuán

bird in a basket, monkey in a cage (idiom); prisoner

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Characters in this entry

籠: Look up this written character
鳥: niǎo · bird; Kangxi radical 196
檻: Look up this written character
猿: yuán · ape
笼: lóng · cage; cage-like basket
鸟: niǎo · bird; Kangxi radical 196
槛: kǎn · threshold, door-sill

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–4–2 · long2 niao3 jian4 yuan2

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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.

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