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憶苦思甜

简忆苦思甜 · 繁憶苦思甜

Mandarin · pinyin yì kǔ sī tián

to view one's past as miserable and one's present as happy (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

憶: Look up this written character
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
思: sī · think, consider, ponder; final particle
甜: tián · sweet, sweetness
忆: yì · remember, reflect upon; memory

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–3–1–2 · yi4 ku3 si1 tian2

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

jik1 fu2 si1 tim4

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to recall one's difficult past and savour one's joyful present

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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