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飽漢不知餓漢飢

简饱汉不知饿汉饥 · 繁飽漢不知餓漢飢

Mandarin · pinyin bǎo hàn bù zhī è hàn jī

The well-fed cannot know how the starving suffer (idiom).

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Characters in this entry

飽: Look up this written character
漢: Look up this written character
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
知: zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
餓: Look up this written character
飢: Look up this written character
饱: bǎo · eat heartily; eat one's fill
汉: hàn · Chinese people; Chinese language
饿: è · hungry; greedy for; hunger
饥: jī · hunger, starving; hungry; a famine

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–4–1–4–4–1 · bao3 han4 bu4 zhi1 e4 han4 ji1

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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.

飽漢不知餓漢飢 · find source passages ↗ · 饱汉不知饿汉饥 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) the well-fed do not know how the starving suffer; to have no realization of how others feel; to be oblivious

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

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