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良工心苦

Mandarin · pinyin liáng gōng xīn kǔ

expert craft from hard practice (idiom); hard-won skill
A masterpiece demands suffering.

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Characters in this entry

良: liáng · good, virtuous, respectable
工: gōng · labor, work; worker, laborer
心: xīn · heart; mind, intelligence; soul; 5th lunar mansion, determinative star α Scorpii (Antares)
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–1–3 · liang2 gong1 xin1 ku3

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

loeng4 gung1 sam1 fu2

Cantonese word readings for 良工心苦. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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