龍生九子

简 龙生九子 · 繁 龍生九子
Mandarin · pinyin lóng shēng jiǔ zǐ

Meanings

  1. lit. the dragon has nine sons (idiom); fig. all kinds of characters
  2. good and bad intermingled
  3. It takes all sorts to make a world.
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Characters in this entry

龍
Look up this written character
生
shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
九
jiǔ · nine
子
zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
龙
lóng · dragon; symbolic of emperor
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–1–3–3 · long2 sheng1 jiu3 zi3

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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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龍生九子 · long2 sheng1 jiu3 zi3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 125,132
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record龍生九子 龙生九子 [long2 sheng1 jiu3 zi3] /lit. the dragon has nine sons (idiom); fig. all kinds of characters/good and bad intermingled/It takes all sorts to make a world./