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憶苦思甜

简忆苦思甜 · 繁憶苦思甜

Mandarin · pinyin yì kǔ sī tián

to view one's past as miserable and one's present as happy (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

憶: Look up this written character
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
思: sī · think, consider, ponder; final particle
甜: tián · sweet, sweetness
忆: yì · remember, reflect upon; memory

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–1–2 · yi4 ku3 si1 tian2

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to recall one's difficult past and savour one's joyful present

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

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