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事過境遷

简事过境迁 · 繁事過境遷

Mandarin · pinyin shì guò jìng qiān

The issue is in the past, and the situation has changed (idiom).
It is water under the bridge.

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Characters in this entry

事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
過: guò · pass, pass through, go across
境: jìng · boundary, frontier; area, region
遷: Look up this written character
过: guò · pass, pass through, go across
迁: qiān · move, shift, change; transfer; relocate a capital city

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–1 · shi4 guo4 jing4 qian1

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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.

事過境遷 · find source passages ↗ · 事过境迁 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

si6 gwo3 ging2 cin1

Cantonese word readings for 事過境遷. 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 issue is in the past and the situation has changed; things change with the passage of time

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

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