滄桑

简 沧桑 · 繁 滄桑
Mandarin · pinyin cāng sāng

Meanings

  1. great changes
  2. ups and downs
  3. vicissitudes
  4. abbr. of 滄海桑田 cāng hǎi sāng tián
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Characters in this entry

滄
Look up this written character
桑
sāng · mulberry tree; surname
沧
cāng · blue, dark green; cold
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1 · cang1 sang1

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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.

滄桑 · find source passages ↗ · 沧桑 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cong1 song1

Cantonese word readings for 滄桑. 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.

noun

  1. (figurative) vicissitudes of life; great changes; complete transformations

adj

  1. having experienced the vicissitudes of life; mature; worldly; sophisticated; suave

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

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

滄桑 · cang1 sang1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 67,391
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record滄桑 沧桑 [cang1 sang1] /great changes/ups and downs/vicissitudes/abbr. of 滄海桑田|沧海桑田[cang1 hai3 sang1 tian2]/