DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

朝生暮死

Mandarin · pinyin zhāo shēng mù sǐ

lit. born in the morning and dying at dusk (idiom)
fig. ephemeral
transient

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

朝: cháo · dynasty; morning
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
暮: mù · evening, dusk, sunset; ending
死: sǐ · die; dead; death

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1–4–3 · zhao1 sheng1 mu4 si3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character 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.

朝生暮死 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗