水清無魚

简 水清无鱼 · 繁 水清無魚
Mandarin · pinyin shuǐ qīng wú yú

Meanings

  1. lit. water that is too clean holds no fish (idiom)
  2. fig. one who is too severe has no friends
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Characters in this entry

水
shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
清
qīng · clear, pure, clean; peaceful
無
Look up this written character
魚
yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195
无
wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
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

3–1–2–2 · shui3 qing1 wu2 yu2

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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.

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水清無魚 · shui3 qing1 wu2 yu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 62,409
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record水清無魚 水清无鱼 [shui3 qing1 wu2 yu2] /lit. water that is too clean holds no fish (idiom)/fig. one who is too severe has no friends/