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維持生活

简维持生活 · 繁維持生活

Mandarin · pinyin wéi chí shēng huó

to subsist
to eke out a living
to keep body and soul together

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Characters in this entry

維: Look up this written character
持: chí · sustain, support; hold, grasp
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
活: huó · live, exist, survive; lively
维: wéi · maintain, preserve, safeguard

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–1–2 · wei2 chi2 sheng1 huo2

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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.

維持生活 · find source passages ↗ · 维持生活 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

to make a living
to subsist

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

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