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花街柳巷

Mandarin · pinyin huā jiē liǔ xiàng

(idiom) red-light district

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Characters in this entry

花: huā · flower; blossoms
街: jiē · street, road, thoroughfare
柳: liǔ · willow tree; pleasure; 24th lunar mansion, determinative star δ Hydrae
巷: xiàng · alley, lane

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–3–4 · hua1 jie1 liu3 xiang4

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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.

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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.

noun

red-light district

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

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