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兵臨城下

简兵临城下 · 繁兵臨城下

Mandarin · pinyin bīng lín chéng xià

soldiers at the city walls (idiom); fig. at a critical juncture

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Characters in this entry

兵: bīng · soldier, troops
臨: Look up this written character
城: chéng · castle; city, town; municipality
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
临: lín · draw near, approach; descend

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–2–4 · bing1 lin2 cheng2 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.

兵臨城下 · find source passages ↗ · 兵临城下 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bing1 lam4 sing4 haa6

Cantonese word readings for 兵臨城下. 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

(literal, figurative) the enemy army is just outside of the walls of the city

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

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