DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

上刀山，下火海

Mandarin · pinyin shàng dāo shān , xià huǒ hǎi

lit. to climb mountains of swords and enter seas of flames (idiom)
fig. to go through trials and tribulations (often, for a noble cause)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
刀: dāo · knife; old coin; measure
山: shān · mountain, hill, peak
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
火: huǒ · fire, flame; burn; anger, rage
海: hǎi · sea, ocean; maritime

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

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

6character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

上刀山，下火海 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗