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山窮水盡

简山穷水尽 · 繁山窮水盡

Mandarin · pinyin shān qióng shuǐ jìn

mountain and river exhausted (idiom); at the end of the line
nowhere to go

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Characters in this entry

山: shān · mountain, hill, peak
窮: Look up this written character
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
盡: Look up this written character
穷: qióng · poor, destitute, impoverished
尽: jǐn · exhaust, use up; deplete

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–3–4 · shan1 qiong2 shui3 jin4

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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.

山窮水盡 · find source passages ↗ · 山穷水尽 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

saan1 kung4 seoi2 zeon6

Cantonese word readings for 山窮水盡. 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

(idiomatic) having no more options; being at the end of one's rope; extremely desperate and hopeless

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

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