DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

渤澥桑田

Mandarin · pinyin bó xiè sāng tián

lit. blue seas where once was mulberry fields (idiom, from 史記 Shǐ jì, Record of the Grand Historian); time brings great changes
life's vicissitudes

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

渤: bó · swelling; (渤海) the Bohai Sea
澥: xiè · a blocked stream; gulf
桑: sāng · mulberry tree; surname
田: tián · field, arable land, cultivated

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–4–1–2 · bo2 xie4 sang1 tian2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links1source reference

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.

渤澥桑田 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗