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一生一世

Mandarin · pinyin yī shēng yī shì

a whole lifetime (idiom); all my life

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Characters in this entry

一: yī · one; a, an; alone
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
世: shì · generation; world; era

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–1–4 · yi1 sheng1 yi1 shi4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jat1 sang1 jat1 sai3

Cantonese word readings for 一生一世. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) lifetime; all of one's life

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

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