川流不息
chuān liú bù xī · HSK 7
unending flow
🏞️ 川 river + 流 flow + 不 not + 息 stop = river flows never stopping
Each character spells it out literally: a river (川) that flows (流) without (不) ceasing (息). Used for endless streams of people, cars, or time itself.
流 — water radical 氵 + 㐬 (phonetic, child being born)
流 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 gives the meaning, while 㐬 depicts an infant being born head-down with amniotic fluid, suggesting downward flow. Together they convey water flowing, and by extension 'to flow' or 'current'.
不 — single pictograph; bird flying upward
Originally a pictograph in oracle bone script, traditionally interpreted as a bird flying up toward the sky and unable to come down, suggesting negation or refusal. Over time it became the standard negation word in Chinese, used before verbs and adjectives to mean 'not'.