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世風日下

简世风日下 · 繁世風日下

Mandarin · pinyin shì fēng rì xià

public morals are degenerating with each passing day (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

世: shì · generation; world; era
風: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere; Kangxi radical 182
日: rì · sun; day; daytime
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
风: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–4–4 · shi4 feng1 ri4 xia4

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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.

世風日下 · find source passages ↗ · 世风日下 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sai3 fung1 jat6 haa6

Cantonese word readings for 世風日下. 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) the world's morals are worsening day by day.

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

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