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韜光養晦

简韬光养晦 · 繁韜光養晦

Mandarin · pinyin tāo guāng yǎng huì

to conceal one's strengths and bide one's time (idiom)
to hide one's light under a bushel

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Characters in this entry

韜: Look up this written character
光: guāng · light, brilliant, shine; only
養: yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support
晦: huì · dark, unclear, obscure; night
韬: tāo · sheath, scabbard, bow case
养: yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–3–4 · tao1 guang1 yang3 hui4

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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.

韜光養晦 · find source passages ↗ · 韬光养晦 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tou1 gwong1 joeng5 fui3

Cantonese word readings for 韜光養晦. 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) to hide one's talents, and bide one's time for the right opportunity

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

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