君子之交淡如水
Meanings
- a gentleman's friendship, insipid as water (idiom, from Zhuangzi 莊子 Zhuāng zǐ)
Characters in this entry
- 君
- jūn · sovereign, monarch, ruler, chief, prince
- 子
- zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
- 之
- zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
- 交
- jiāo · mix; intersect; exchange, communicate; deliver
- 淡
- dàn · weak, watery; insipid, tasteless
- 如
- rú · if, supposing; as if; like, as
- 水
- shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
1–3–1–1–4–2–3 · jun1 zi3 zhi1 jiao1 dan4 ru2 shui3
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
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.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
gwan1 zi2 zi1 gaau1 daam6 jyu4 seoi2
Cantonese word readings for 君子之交淡如水. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
proverb
- (simile) True friendship between two men of accomplishment need not be overly demonstrative.
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack