A good general does not collapse from a single defeat.
Tips
usage
The jué reading dominates everyday use through 一蹶不振 (to never recover after one setback). The original sense is to stumble and fall; the figurative 'suffer a lasting setback' grew out of that image.
The foot radical on the left, in its compressed left-side form. It signals an action of the legs and feet — stumbling, falling, kicking. It groups 蹶 with 跌, 踏, and 踢.
