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開疆拓土

简开疆拓土 · 繁開疆拓土

Mandarin · pinyin kāi jiāng tuò tǔ

(idiom) to expand one's territory; to conquer new lands; (fig.) to expand one's business into new markets

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Characters in this entry

開: kāi · open; initiate, begin, start
疆: jiāng · boundary, border, frontier
拓: tà · expand; open up; support or push
土: tǔ · soil, earth; items made of earth
开: kāi · open; initiate, begin, start

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–3 · kai1 jiang1 tuo4 tu3

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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.

開疆拓土 · find source passages ↗ · 开疆拓土 · find source passages ↗

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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

(idiomatic) to expand one's territory

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

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