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江河日下

Mandarin · pinyin jiāng hé rì xià

rivers pour away by the day (idiom); going from bad to worse
deteriorating day by day

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Characters in this entry

江: jiāng · large river; the Yangzi; surname
河: hé · river; stream; the Yellow River
日: rì · sun; day; daytime
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · jiang1 he2 ri4 xia4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gong1 ho4 jat6 haa6

Cantonese word readings for 江河日下. 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) to worsen by the day; to get worse with each passing day

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

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