DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

上西天

Mandarin · pinyin shàng xī tiān

(Buddhism) to go to the Western Paradise
(fig.) to die

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
西: xī · west(ern); westward; occident; Kangxi radical 146
天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–1–1 · shang4 xi1 tian1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

3character 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.

上西天 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

soeng5 sai1 tin1

Cantonese word readings for 上西天. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

verb

(Buddhism) to go to Western Paradise
(euphemistic) to die; to enter heaven

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack