如人飲水,冷暖自知

简 如人饮水,冷暖自知 · 繁 如人飲水,冷暖自知
Mandarin · pinyin rú rén yǐn shuǐ , lěng nuǎn zì zhī

Meanings

  1. the person who drinks it knows best whether the water is hot or cold (Zen proverb); self-awareness comes from within
  2. to know best by personal experience
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Characters in this entry

如
rú · if, supposing; as if; like, as
人
rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
飲
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水
shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
冷
lěng · cold, cool; lonely
暖
nuǎn · warm, genial
自
zì · self, private, personal; from; Kangxi radical 132
知
zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
饮
yǐn · drink; swallow; kind of drink
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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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.

如人飲水,冷暖自知 · find source passages ↗ · 如人饮水,冷暖自知 · find source passages ↗

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如人飲水,冷暖自知 · ru2 ren2 yin3 shui3 , leng3 nuan3 zi4 zhi1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 30,218
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record如人飲水,冷暖自知 如人饮水,冷暖自知 [ru2 ren2 yin3 shui3 , leng3 nuan3 zi4 zhi1] /the person who drinks it knows best whether the water is hot or cold (Zen proverb); self-awareness comes from within/to know best by personal experience/