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下工夫

Mandarin · pinyin xià gōng fu

to put in time and energy
to concentrate one's efforts

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Characters in this entry

下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
工: gōng · labor, work; worker, laborer
夫: fū · man, male adult, husband; those

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–5 · xia4 gong1 fu5

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

verb

(verb-object) to put in time and energy

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

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