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天荒地老

Mandarin · pinyin tiān huāng dì lǎo

(idiom) until the end of time

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Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
荒: huāng · wasteland, desert; uncultivated
地: de · dì · earth; soil, ground; region
老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–3 · tian1 huang1 di4 lao3

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tin1 fong1 dei6 lou5

Cantonese word readings for 天荒地老. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) end of time; all eternity

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

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