DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

水淺養不住大魚

简水浅养不住大鱼 · 繁水淺養不住大魚

Mandarin · pinyin shuǐ qiǎn yǎng bù zhù dà yú

lit. shallow waters cannot harbor big fish (idiom)
fig. ambitious, talented people cannot reach their full potential in a small organization

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Characters in this entry

水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
淺: Look up this written character
養: yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
住: zhù · reside, live at, dwell, lodge; stop
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
魚: yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195
浅: qiǎn · shallow, not deep; superficial
养: yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support
鱼: yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3–3–4–4–4–2 · shui3 qian3 yang3 bu4 zhu4 da4 yu2

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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.

水淺養不住大魚 · find source passages ↗ · 水浅养不住大鱼 · find source passages ↗

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