DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

肝膽相照

简肝胆相照 · 繁肝膽相照

Mandarin · pinyin gān dǎn xiāng zhào

to treat one another with absolute sincerity (idiom); to show total devotion

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Characters in this entry

肝: gān · liver
膽: Look up this written character
相: xiāng · mutual, reciprocal, each other
照: zhào · shine, illumine, reflect
胆: dǎn · gall bladder; bravery, courage

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–1–4 · gan1 dan3 xiang1 zhao4

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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.

肝膽相照 · find source passages ↗ · 肝胆相照 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gon1 daam2 soeng1 ziu3

Cantonese word readings for 肝膽相照. 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 treat one another with absolute sincerity; to show total devotion

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

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