it is easier to change mountains and rivers than to alter one's character (idiom); you can't change who you are; Can the leopard change his spots?
trad. 江山易改，本性難移
Also written 江山易改，本性難移【jiāng shān yì gǎi , běn xìng nán yí】
Characters in this word
8江
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
surname Jiang, (bound form) Yangtze River, (bound form) Jiangsu Province (abbr. for 江蘇|江苏[Jiang1 su1])
- Pinyin
- Jiāng
- Strokes
- 6
- Frequency
- 19052 of 2500
山
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
surname Shan
- Pinyin
- Shān
- Strokes
- 3
- Frequency
- 2411 of 2500
易
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
surname Yi, I Ching; Book of Changes (abbr. for 易經|易经[Yi4 jing1])
- Pinyin
- Yì
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 16361 of 2500
改
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to change, to alter, to transform, to correct
- Pinyin
- gǎi
- Strokes
- 7
- Frequency
- 3162 of 2500
本
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
(bound form) root; stem, (bound form) origin; source, (bound form) one's own; this, (bound form) this; the current (year etc), (bound form) original, (bound form) inherent, originally; initially, capital; principal, classifier for books, periodicals, files etc
- Pinyin
- běn
- Strokes
- 5
- Frequency
- 799 of 2500
性
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
nature, character, property, quality, attribute, sexuality, sex, gender, suffix forming adjective from verb, suffix forming noun from adjective, corresponding to -ness or -ity, essence, CL:個|个[ge4]
- Pinyin
- xìng
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 2159 of 2500
难
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
difficult (to...), problem, difficulty, difficult, not good
- Pinyin
- nán
- Traditional
- 難
- Strokes
- 10
- Frequency
- 1327 of 2500
移
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to move, to shift, to change, to alter, to remove
- Pinyin
- yí
- Strokes
- 11
- Frequency
- 12964 of 2500