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背井離鄉

简背井离乡 · 繁背井離鄉

Mandarin · pinyin bèi jǐng lí xiāng

to leave one's native place, esp. against one's will (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

背: bèi · back; back side; behind; betray
井: jǐng · well, mine shaft, pit; surname; 22nd lunar mansion, determinative star μ Geminorum (Tejat); hexagram ䷯
離: Look up this written character
鄉: Look up this written character
离: lí · rare beast; strange; elegant
乡: xiāng · country; rural; village

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2–1 · bei4 jing3 li2 xiang1

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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.

背井離鄉 · find source passages ↗ · 背井离乡 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bui3 zeng2 lei4 hoeng1

Cantonese word readings for 背井離鄉. 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 leave one's native place and move elsewhere

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

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