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今不如昔

Mandarin · pinyin jīn bù rú xī

things are not as good as they used to be

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Characters in this entry

今: jīn · now, today, modern era
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
如: rú · if, supposing; as if; like, as
昔: xī · formerly; ancient; in beginning

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–2–1 · jin1 bu4 ru2 xi1

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) the present is worse than the past

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

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