逆水行舟 — Chinese idiom
逆水行舟
nì shuǐ xíng zhōu
Meaning
- lit. navigating a boat against the current
- fig. in a tough environment (one needs to work hard)
Character by character
- 逆nìto disobey, to rebel; traitor, rebel
- 水shuǐwater, liquid, lotion, juice
- 行xíngto go, to walk, to move; professional
- 舟zhōuboat, ship
Idioms sharing a character
- 倒行逆施 dào xíng nì shī
- 忠言逆耳 zhōng yán nì ěr
- 逆来顺受 nì lái shùn shòu
- 逆耳之言 nì ěr zhī yán
- 逆行倒施 nì xíng dào shī
- 违天逆理 wéi tiān nì lǐ
- 一清如水 yī qīng rú shuǐ
- 似水年华 sì shuǐ nián huá
- 出水芙蓉 chū shuǐ fú róng
- 如鱼得水 rú yú dé shuǐ
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.