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開篇

简开篇 · 繁開篇

Mandarin · pinyin kāi piān

start of literary work
opening song of ballad in Tanci style 彈詞 tán cí

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Characters in this entry

開: kāi · open; initiate, begin, start
篇: piān · chapter, section, essay, article
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 · kai1 pian1

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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.

開篇 · find source passages ↗ · 开篇 · find source passages ↗

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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.

noun

introductory song (of an opera)
opening (of a book, movie, etc.)

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

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