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薄命

Mandarin · pinyin bó mìng

to be born under an unlucky star (usu. of women)
to be born unlucky

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Characters in this entry

薄: báo · bó · thin, slight, weak; poor, stingy
命: mìng · life; destiny, fate, luck; an order, instruction

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4 · bo2 ming4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

adj

born under an unlucky star; born unlucky (usually of women); ill-fated

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

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