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順水人情

简顺水人情 · 繁順水人情

Mandarin · pinyin shùn shuǐ rén qíng

to do sb a favor at little cost

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Characters in this entry

順: Look up this written character
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
情: qíng · feeling, sentiment, emotion
顺: shùn · obey, submit to, go along with

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2–2 · shun4 shui3 ren2 qing2

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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.

順水人情 · find source passages ↗ · 顺水人情 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

seon6 seoi2 jan4 cing4

Cantonese word readings for 順水人情. 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) favour done (for others) at little or no cost

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

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