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買路錢

简买路钱 · 繁買路錢

Mandarin · pinyin mǎi lù qián

money extorted by bandits in exchange for safe passage; illegal toll
(old) paper money strewn along the path of a funeral procession

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Characters in this entry

買: Look up this written character
路: lù · road, path, street; journey
錢: Look up this written character
买: mǎi · buy, purchase; bribe, persuade
钱: qián · money, currency, coins

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–2 · mai3 lu4 qian2

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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.

買路錢 · find source passages ↗ · 买路钱 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

maai5 lou6 cin4

Cantonese word readings for 買路錢. 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.

noun

money paid to bandits for safe passage

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

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