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細水長流

简细水长流 · 繁細水長流

Mandarin · pinyin xì shuǐ cháng liú

lit. thin streams flow forever
fig. economy will get you a long way
to work steadily at something little by little

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Characters in this entry

細: xì · fine, tiny; slender, thin
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
長: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader; Kangxi radical 168
流: liú · flow, circulate, drift; class
细: xì · fine, tiny; slender, thin
长: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2–2 · xi4 shui3 chang2 liu2

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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.

細水長流 · find source passages ↗ · 细水长流 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sai3 seoi2 coeng4 lau4

Cantonese word readings for 細水長流. 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 economize to avoid running short
(idiomatic) to work steadily at something little by little

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

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