DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
人在江湖，身不由己
Mandarin · pinyin rén zài jiāng hú , shēn bù yóu jǐ
Meanings
- (proverb) you can't always do as you like; one has to compromise in this world
Characters in this entry
- 人
- rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
- 在
- zài · be at, in, on; consist in, rest
- 江
- jiāng · large river; the Yangzi; surname
- 湖
- hú · a lake; Hubei, Hunan; bluish-green
- 身
- shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 由
- yóu · cause, reason; from
- 己
- jǐ · self, oneself; personal, private; 6th heavenly stem
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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading
jan4 zoi6 gong1 wu4 ，san1 bat1 jau4 gei2
Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.