DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂

简先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐 · 繁先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂

Mandarin · pinyin xiān tiān xià zhī yōu ér yōu , hòu tiān xià zhī lè ér lè

to be the first to worry about affairs of state, and the last to enjoy oneself (quotation from the essay On Yueyang Tower 岳陽樓記 Yuè yáng Lóu Jì by Song writer Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 Fàn Zhòng yān)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

先: xiān · first, former, previous
天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
憂: Look up this written character
而: ér · and; and then; and yet; but; Kangxi radical 126
後: hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
樂: lè · happy, glad; enjoyable; music
忧: yōu · sad, grieved; grief, melancholy
后: hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after
乐: lè · happy, glad; enjoyable; music

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

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

11character links2source references

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.

先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂 · find source passages ↗ · 先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗