聲色犬馬

简 声色犬马 · 繁 聲色犬馬
Mandarin · pinyin shēng sè quǎn mǎ

Meanings

  1. (lit.) music, women, dogs and horses (traditional aristocratic amusements, with dogs and horses referring to activities such as hunting and riding) (idiom)
  2. (fig.) wine, women and song; dissolute pleasures; a life of sensual indulgence
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Characters in this entry

聲
shēng · sound, voice, noise; tone; music
色
sè · color, tint, hue, shade; form, body; beauty, desire for beauty; Kangxi radical 139
犬
quǎn · dog; radical number 94
馬
Look up this written character
声
shēng · sound, voice, noise; tone; music
马
mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–4–3–3 · sheng1 se4 quan3 ma3

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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.

聲色犬馬 · find source passages ↗ · 声色犬马 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) sound (i.e. going to the theatre), beauty (i.e. visiting brothels), keeping dogs and riding horses; (figurative) various types of sensual pleasure

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

聲色犬馬 · sheng1 se4 quan3 ma3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 89,661
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record聲色犬馬 声色犬马 [sheng1 se4 quan3 ma3] /(lit.) music, women, dogs and horses (traditional aristocratic amusements, with dogs and horses referring to activities such as hunting and riding) (idiom)/(fig.) wine, women and song; dissolute pleasures; a life of sensual indulgence/