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風生水起

简风生水起 · 繁風生水起

Mandarin · pinyin fēng shēng shuǐ qǐ

lit. a breeze springs up and creates waves on the water (idiom)
fig. flourishing
thriving
prosperous

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Characters in this entry

風: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere; Kangxi radical 182
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
起: qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
风: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–3–3 · feng1 sheng1 shui3 qi3

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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.

風生水起 · find source passages ↗ · 风生水起 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fung1 sang1 seoi2 hei2

Cantonese word readings for 風生水起. 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 be flourishing; to be blooming (also used a Chinese New Year's wishing phrase)

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

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