一清如水
yī qīng rú shuǐ
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1 lit. as clear as water (idiom)
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2 fig. (of officials etc) honest and incorruptible
一碗水端平
yī wǎn shuǐ duān píng
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1 lit. to hold a bowl of water level (idiom)
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2 fig. to be impartial
一点水一个泡
yī diǎn shuǐ yī gè pào
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1 honest and trustworthy (idiom)
三个和尚没水喝
sān gè hé shang méi shuǐ hē
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1 lit. three monks have no water to drink (idiom)
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2 fig. everybody's business is nobody's business
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3 (If there is one monk, he will fetch water for himself. If there are two, they will fetch water together. But if there are three or more, none will take it upon himself to fetch water.)
不胜其苦
bù shèng qí kǔ
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1 unable to bear the pain (idiom)
不显山不露水
bù xiǎn shān bù lù shuǐ
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1 lit. to not show the mountain and to not reveal the water (idiom); fig. to hide the key facts
人不可貌相,海水不可斗量
rén bù kě mào xiàng , hǎi shuǐ bù kě dǒu liáng
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1 you can't judge a person by appearance, just as you can't measure the sea with a pint pot (idiom)
人往高处走,水往低处流
rén wǎng gāo chù zǒu , shuǐ wǎng dī chù liú
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1 man seeks his way up just as water seeks its way down (idiom)
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2 one should constantly strive to make progress
倒悬之危
dào xuán zhī wēi
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1 lit. the crisis of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation
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2 dire straits
倒悬之急
dào xuán zhī jí
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1 lit. the crisis of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation
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2 dire straits
倒悬之苦
dào xuán zhī kǔ
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1 lit. the pain of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation
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2 dire straits
倒打一耙
dào dǎ yī pá
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1 lit. to strike with a muckrake (idiom), cf Pigsy 豬八戒|猪八戒 in Journey to the West 西遊記|西游记; fig. to counterattack
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2 to make bogus accusations (against one's victim)
倒行逆施
dào xíng nì shī
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1 to go against the tide (idiom); to do things all wrong
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2 to try to turn back history
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3 a perverse way of doing things
备尝辛苦
bèi cháng xīn kǔ
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1 to have suffered all kinds of hardships (idiom)
兵来将挡,水来土掩
bīng lái jiàng dǎng , shuǐ lái tǔ yǎn
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1 counter soldiers with arms, water with an earth weir (idiom); different situations call for different action
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2 to adopt measures appropriate to the actual situation
兵来将敌,水来土堰
bīng lái jiàng dí , shuǐ lái tǔ yàn
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1 counter soldiers with arms, water with an earth weir (idiom); different situations call for different action
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2 to adopt measures appropriate to the actual situation
兵败如山倒
bīng bài rú shān dǎo
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1 troops in defeat like a landslide (idiom); a beaten army in total collapse
冥思苦想
míng sī kǔ xiǎng
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1 to consider from all angles (idiom); to think hard
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2 to rack one's brains
冥思苦索
míng sī kǔ suǒ
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1 to mull over (idiom)
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2 to think long and hard