鍾靈毓秀

简 钟灵毓秀 · 繁 鍾靈毓秀
Mandarin · pinyin zhōng líng yù xiù

Meanings

  1. (of a place) endowed with a natural beauty that nurtures people of talent (idiom)
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

鍾
Look up this written character
靈
Look up this written character
毓
yù · give birth to; bring up, educate
秀
xiù · ear of grain; flowering, luxuriant; refined, elegant, graceful
钟
zhōng · clock; bell
灵
líng · spirit, soul; spiritual world
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · zhong1 ling2 yu4 xiu4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
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.

鍾靈毓秀 · find source passages ↗ · 钟灵毓秀 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

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.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) a good environment produces excellent people

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

鍾靈毓秀 · zhong1 ling2 yu4 xiu4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 112,470
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record鍾靈毓秀 钟灵毓秀 [zhong1 ling2 yu4 xiu4] /(of a place) endowed with a natural beauty that nurtures people of talent (idiom)/