羝羊觸藩

简 羝羊触藩 · 繁 羝羊觸藩
Mandarin · pinyin dī yáng chù fān

Meanings

  1. lit. billy goat's horns caught in the fence (idiom from Book of Changes 易經); impossible to advance or to retreat
  2. without any way out of a dilemma
  3. trapped
  4. in an impossible situation
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Characters in this entry

羝
dī · ram, he-goat
羊
yáng · sheep, goat; Kangxi radical 123
觸
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藩
fān · fence; boundary; outlying border
触
chù · butt, ram, gore; touch
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–1 · di1 yang2 chu4 fan1

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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.

羝羊觸藩 · find source passages ↗ · 羝羊触藩 · find source passages ↗

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羝羊觸藩 · di1 yang2 chu4 fan1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 88,143
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record羝羊觸藩 羝羊触藩 [di1 yang2 chu4 fan1] /lit. billy goat's horns caught in the fence (idiom from Book of Changes 易經|易经); impossible to advance or to retreat/without any way out of a dilemma/trapped/in an impossible situation/