人往高處走,水往低處流

简 人往高处走,水往低处流 · 繁 人往高處走,水往低處流
Mandarin · pinyin rén wǎng gāo chù zǒu , shuǐ wǎng dī chù liú

Meanings

  1. man seeks his way up just as water seeks its way down (idiom)
  2. one should constantly strive to make progress
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Characters in this entry

人
rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
往
wǎng · go, depart; past, formerly
高
gāo · high, tall; lofty, elevated; Kangxi radical 189
處
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走
zǒu · walk, go on foot; run; leave; Kangxi radical 156
水
shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
低
dī · low; to lower, hang, bend, bow
流
liú · flow, circulate, drift; class
处
chù · place, locale; department
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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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.

人往高處走,水往低處流 · find source passages ↗ · 人往高处走,水往低处流 · find source passages ↗

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人往高處走,水往低處流 · ren2 wang3 gao1 chu4 zou3 , shui3 wang3 di1 chu4 liu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 5,777
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record人往高處走,水往低處流 人往高处走,水往低处流 [ren2 wang3 gao1 chu4 zou3 , shui3 wang3 di1 chu4 liu2] /man seeks his way up just as water seeks its way down (idiom)/one should constantly strive to make progress/