穷当益坚 — Chinese idiom
穷当益坚
qióng dāng yì jiān
Traditional: 窮當益堅
Meaning
- poor but ambitious ; hard-pressed but determined
- the worse one's position, the harder one must fight back
Character by character
- 穷qióngpoor, destitute; to exhaust
- 当dāngappropriate, timely; to act, to serve; the sound o
- 益yìto profit, to benefit; advantage
- 坚jiānhard, strong; firm, resolute
Idioms sharing a character
- 国弱民穷 guó ruò mín qióng
- 图穷匕见 tú qióng bǐ xiàn
- 安富恤穷 ān fù xù qióng
- 层出不穷 céng chū bù qióng
- 山穷水尽 shān qióng shuǐ jìn
- 后患无穷 hòu huàn wú qióng
- 日暮途穷 rì mù tú qióng
- 民穷财尽 mín qióng cái jìn
- 无穷无尽 wú qióng wú jìn
- 理屈词穷 lǐ qū cí qióng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.