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三千大千世界

Mandarin · pinyin sān qiān dà qiān shì jiè

cosmos (Buddhism)

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Characters in this entry

三: sān · three
千: qiān · thousand; many, numerous; very; (Cant.) a cheater, swindler
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
世: shì · generation; world; era
界: jiè · boundary, limit; domain; society; the world

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–1–4–4 · san1 qian1 da4 qian1 shi4 jie4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

(Buddhism) a trichiliocosm (a universe containing a billion worlds).

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

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