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青雲直上

简青云直上 · 繁青雲直上

Mandarin · pinyin qīng yún zhí shàng

rising straight up in a clear sky (idiom); rapid promotion to a high post
meteoric career

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Characters in this entry

青: qīng · blue, green; young; Kangxi radical 174
雲: yún · clouds; Yunnan province
直: zhí · straight, erect, vertical
上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
云: yún · say, speak; clouds

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–2–4 · qing1 yun2 zhi2 shang4

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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.

青雲直上 · find source passages ↗ · 青云直上 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cing1 wan4 zik6 soeng5

Cantonese word readings for 青雲直上. 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) meteoric rise; to rise through the ranks rapidly

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

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