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身敗名裂

简身败名裂 · 繁身敗名裂

Mandarin · pinyin shēn bài míng liè

to lose one's standing
to have one's reputation swept away
a complete defeat and fall from grace

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Characters in this entry

身: shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
敗: Look up this written character
名: míng · name, rank, title, position
裂: liè · split, crack, break open; rend
败: bài · be defeated, decline, fail

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–2–4 · shen1 bai4 ming2 lie4

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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.

身敗名裂 · find source passages ↗ · 身败名裂 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

san1 baai6 ming4 lit6

Cantonese word readings for 身敗名裂. 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 lose one's status and have one's reputation destroyed

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

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