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生老病死

Mandarin · pinyin shēng lǎo bìng sǐ

(lit.) to be born, to grow old, to get sick and to die (idiom)
(fig.) the fate of humankind (i.e. mortality)

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Characters in this entry

生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
病: bìng · illness, sickness, disease
死: sǐ · die; dead; death

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–3 · sheng1 lao3 bing4 si3

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sang1 lou5 beng6 sei2

Cantonese word readings for 生老病死. 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.

phrase

(originally Buddhism) to be born, to get old, to become ill and to die; fate of humankind; mortality

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

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