比上不足,比下有餘

简 比上不足,比下有余 · 繁 比上不足,比下有餘
Mandarin · pinyin bǐ shàng bù zú , bǐ xià yǒu yú

Meanings

  1. neither the best nor the worst; not too bad; better than some
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Characters in this entry

比
bǐ · to compare, liken; comparison; than; hexagram ䷇
上
shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
足
zú · foot; attain, satisfy, enough; Kangxi radical 156
下
xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
有
yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
餘
Look up this written character
余
yú · I, my, me; surname; surplus
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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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.

比上不足,比下有餘 · find source passages ↗ · 比上不足,比下有余 · find source passages ↗

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比上不足,比下有餘 · bi3 shang4 bu4 zu2 , bi3 xia4 you3 yu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 61,546
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record比上不足,比下有餘 比上不足,比下有余 [bi3 shang4 bu4 zu2 , bi3 xia4 you3 yu2] /neither the best nor the worst; not too bad; better than some/