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聞雞起舞

简闻鸡起舞 · 繁聞雞起舞

Mandarin · pinyin wén jī qǐ wǔ

to start practicing at the first crow of the cock (idiom)
to be diligent in one's studies

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Characters in this entry

聞: Look up this written character
雞: jī · chickens; domestic fowl
起: qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
舞: wǔ · dance, posture, prance; brandish
闻: wén · hear; smell; make known; news
鸡: jī · chicken

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–3–3 · wen2 ji1 qi3 wu3

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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.

聞雞起舞 · find source passages ↗ · 闻鸡起舞 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

man4 gai1 hei2 mou5

Cantonese word readings for 聞雞起舞. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to be a go-getter; to be a self-starter

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

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