吾生也有涯,而知也無涯

简 吾生也有涯,而知也无涯 · 繁 吾生也有涯,而知也無涯
Mandarin · pinyin wú shēng yě yǒu yá , ér zhī yě wú yá

Meanings

  1. Life is short, learning is limitless
  2. Ars longa, vita brevis
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

吾
wú · i, my, our; resist, impede
生
shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
也
yě · also; classical final particle of strong affirmation or identity
有
yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
涯
yá · shore, bank, water's edge
而
ér · and; and then; and yet; but; Kangxi radical 126
知
zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
無
Look up this written character
无
wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

8character 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.

吾生也有涯,而知也無涯 · find source passages ↗ · 吾生也有涯,而知也无涯 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

吾生也有涯,而知也無涯 · wu2 sheng1 ye3 you3 ya2 , er2 zhi1 ye3 wu2 ya2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 20,811
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record吾生也有涯,而知也無涯 吾生也有涯,而知也无涯 [wu2 sheng1 ye3 you3 ya2 , er2 zhi1 ye3 wu2 ya2] /Life is short, learning is limitless/Ars longa, vita brevis/