DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

西施

Mandarin · pinyin Xī shī

Xishi (c. 450 BC), famous Chinese beauty, foremost of the four legendary beauties 四大美女 sì dà měi nǚ, given by King Gou Jian 勾踐 Gōu Jiàn of Yue as concubine to King of Wu as part of a successful plan to destroy Wu

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

西: xī · west(ern); westward; occident; Kangxi radical 146
施: shī · grant, bestow; give; act; name

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1 · Xi1 shi1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links1same-tone record2source references

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

西施 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 3 senses · 1 Cantonese reading