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身無分文

简身无分文 · 繁身無分文

Mandarin · pinyin shēn wú fēn wén

(idiom) penniless; completely broke

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Characters in this entry

身: shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
無: Look up this written character
分: fēn · divide; small unit of time etc.
文: wén · literature, culture, writing
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–1–2 · shen1 wu2 fen1 wen2

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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.

身無分文 · find source passages ↗ · 身无分文 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

san1 mou4 fan1 man4

Cantonese word readings for 身無分文. 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) penniless

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

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