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苦工

Mandarin · pinyin kǔ gōng

hard labor (in penal code)
coolie

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Characters in this entry

苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
工: gōng · labor, work; worker, laborer

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1 · ku3 gong1

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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 Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

hard or manual work; sweated labor; fag
coolie; person doing hard or manual work

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

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