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流年不利

Mandarin · pinyin liú nián bù lì

the year's horoscope augurs ill (idiom); an unlucky year

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Characters in this entry

流: liú · flow, circulate, drift; class
年: nián · year; new-years; person's age
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
利: lì · gains, advantage, profit, merit

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–4 · liu2 nian2 bu4 li4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to have an unlucky year

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

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