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民窮財盡

简民穷财尽 · 繁民窮財盡

Mandarin · pinyin mín qióng cái jìn

the people are impoverished, their means exhausted (idiom); to drive the nation to bankruptcy

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Characters in this entry

民: mín · people, subjects, citizens
窮: Look up this written character
財: Look up this written character
盡: Look up this written character
穷: qióng · poor, destitute, impoverished
财: cái · wealth, valuables, riches
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

2–2–2–4 · min2 qiong2 cai2 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.

民窮財盡 · find source passages ↗ · 民穷财尽 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

man4 kung4 coi4 zeon6

Cantonese word readings for 民窮財盡. 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) the people are impoverished

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

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