DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
身正不怕影子斜
Mandarin · pinyin shēn zhèng bù pà yǐng zi xié
Meanings
- (lit.) when a man stands straight, he doesn't worry that his shadow is slanting (saying)
- (fig.) as long as one conducts oneself honorably, one need not worry about what people think; a clean hand wants no washing
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Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.
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Mandarin tones
1–4–4–4–3–5–2 · shen1 zheng4 bu4 pa4 ying3 zi5 xie2
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
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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.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
proverb
- One does not need to worry about rumours if one is upright.
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
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