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艱苦奮鬥

简艰苦奋斗 · 繁艱苦奮鬥

Mandarin · pinyin jiān kǔ fèn dòu

to struggle arduously

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Characters in this entry

艱: Look up this written character
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
奮: Look up this written character
鬥: Look up this written character
艰: jiān · difficult, hard; distressing
奋: fèn · strive, exert effort; arouse
斗: dòu · dǒu · a dipper; unit of volume (ten 升 or litres); Kangxi radical 68; 8th lunar mansion, determinative star φ Sagittarii

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–4 · jian1 ku3 fen4 dou4

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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.

艱苦奮鬥 · find source passages ↗ · 艰苦奋斗 · find source passages ↗

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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 struggle through difficult times; to work hard and push through despite hardship

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

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