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身不由己

Mandarin · pinyin shēn bù yóu jǐ

(idiom) (of one's circumstances) beyond one's control; unable to do anything about it; (of one's actions) not subject to conscious control (i.e. done in spite of oneself)

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Characters in this entry

身: shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
由: yóu · cause, reason; from
己: jǐ · self, oneself; personal, private; 6th heavenly stem

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–2–3 · shen1 bu4 you2 ji3

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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 · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

san1 bat1 jau4 gei2

Cantonese word readings for 身不由己. 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) to be unable to determine for oneself; to be involuntary

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

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