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離經叛道

简离经叛道 · 繁離經叛道

Mandarin · pinyin lí jīng pàn dào

to rebel against orthodoxy
to depart from established practices

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Characters in this entry

離: Look up this written character
經: Look up this written character
叛: pàn · rebel; rebellion; rebellious
道: dào · path, road, street; method, way
离: lí · rare beast; strange; elegant
经: jīng · classic works; pass through

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–4–4 · li2 jing1 pan4 dao4

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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.

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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 deviate from the Confucian classics or the orthodoxy; to deviate from the mainstream thought or norms

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

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