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閉目塞聽

简闭目塞听 · 繁閉目塞聽

Mandarin · pinyin bì mù sè tīng

to shut one's eyes and stop one's ears
out of touch with reality
to bury one's head in the sand

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Characters in this entry

閉: Look up this written character
目: mù · eye; look, see; division, topic; Kangxi radical 109
塞: sāi · stop up, block, seal, cork; pass, frontier; fortress
聽: tīng · hear, listen; understand; obey
闭: bì · shut, close; obstruct, block up
听: tīng · hear; understand; obey, comply

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–1 · bi4 mu4 se4 ting1

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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.

閉目塞聽 · find source passages ↗ · 闭目塞听 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bai3 muk6 sak1 ting1

Cantonese word readings for 閉目塞聽. 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 out of touch with reality

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

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