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難辭其咎

简难辞其咎 · 繁難辭其咎

Mandarin · pinyin nán cí qí jiù

cannot escape censure (idiom)
has to bear the blame

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Characters in this entry

難: Look up this written character
辭: Look up this written character
其: qí · his, her, its, their; that
咎: jiù · fault, defect; error, mistake
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
辞: cí · words, speech, expression, phrase

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–2–4 · nan2 ci2 qi2 jiu4

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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.

難辭其咎 · find source passages ↗ · 难辞其咎 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

naan4 ci4 kei4 gau3

Cantonese word readings for 難辭其咎. 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) can hardly absolve oneself from the blame; to be culpable; to be to blame

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

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