DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

死而復生

简死而复生 · 繁死而復生

Mandarin · pinyin sǐ ér fù shēng

(idiom) to come back to life (after death)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

死: sǐ · die; dead; death
而: ér · and; and then; and yet; but; Kangxi radical 126
復: Look up this written character
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
复: fù · return; repeat; repeatedly

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–2–4–1 · si3 er2 fu4 sheng1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character 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.

死而復生 · find source passages ↗ · 死而复生 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to become alive after death; to resurrect

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack