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天下兴亡，匹夫有责

tiān xià xīng wáng , pǐ fū yǒu zédictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
The rise and fall of the nation concerns everyone (idiom). Everyone bears responsibility for the prosperity of society.
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-1ae278797335666e. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

天下興亡，匹夫有責 天下兴亡，匹夫有责 [tian1 xia4 xing1 wang2 , pi3 fu1 you3 ze2] /The rise and fall of the nation concerns everyone (idiom). Everyone bears responsibility for the prosperity of society./

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 天下興亡，匹夫有責

  • 天
    tiān

    day / sky / heaven

  • 下
    xià

    down / downwards / below / lower / later / next (week etc) / second (of two parts) / to decline / to go down / to arrive at (a decision, conclusion etc) / measure word to show the frequency of an action

  • 兴
    xīng

    to rise / to flourish / to become popular / to start / to encourage / to get up / (often used in the negative) to permit or allow (dialect) / maybe (dialect)

    xìng

    feeling or desire to do sth / interest in sth / excitement

    Xīng

    surname Xing

  • 亡
    wáng

    to die / to lose / to be gone / to flee / deceased

  • 匹
    pǐ

    (bound form) matching / comparable to / (bound form) alone / single / one of a pair / classifier for horses, mules etc (Taiwan pr. [pī]) / classifier for cloth: bolt / horsepower

  • 夫
    fū

    husband / man / manual worker / conscripted laborer (old)

    fú

    (classical) this, that / he, she, they / (exclamatory final particle) / (initial particle, introduces an opinion)

  • 有
    yǒu

    to have / there is / (bound form) having / with / -ful / -ed / -al (as in 有意[yǒu yì] intentional)

  • 责
    zé

    duty / responsibility / to reproach / to blame

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.