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一蹶不振

Mandarin · pinyin yī jué bù zhèn

one stumble, unable to rise (idiom); a setback leading to total collapse
ruined at a stroke
unable to recover after a minor hitch

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Characters in this entry

一: yī · one; a, an; alone
蹶: jué · juě · stumble, fall down; trample
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
振: zhèn · raise, excite, arouse action

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · yi1 jue2 bu4 zhen4

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jat1 kyut3 bat1 zan3

Cantonese word readings for 一蹶不振. 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) one tumbles and unable to speak at all
(figurative) the subject flipped over after wobbling

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

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