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落葉歸根

简落叶归根 · 繁落葉歸根

Mandarin · pinyin luò yè guī gēn#

lit. a falling leaf returns to the roots (idiom)
fig. all things go back to their source eventually
in old age, an expatriate returns home

Mandarin · pinyin Luò yè guī gēn#

Getting Home, 2007 PRC comedy-drama film directed by 張揚 Zhāng Yáng, starring 趙本山 Zhào Běn shān

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Characters in this entry

落: luò · fall, drop; net income, surplus
葉: yè · leaf, petal; page of book; period
歸: Look up this written character
根: gēn · root, base(d on); foundation
叶: yè · to harmonize, to rhyme; to unite; (borrowed for) leaf
归: guī · return; return to, revert to

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–1–1 · luo4 ye4 gui1 gen1

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5character links1same-tone record

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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.

落葉歸根 · find source passages ↗ · 落叶归根 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lok6 jip6 gwai1 gan1

Cantonese word readings for 落葉歸根. 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) a person who has been away from his or her hometown for a long time would eventually return

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

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