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貪生怕死

简贪生怕死 · 繁貪生怕死

Mandarin · pinyin tān shēng pà sǐ

greedy for life, afraid of death (idiom); craven and cowardly
clinging abjectly to life
only interested in saving one's neck

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Characters in this entry

貪: Look up this written character
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
怕: pà · to fear, be afraid of; apprehensive
死: sǐ · die; dead; death
贪: tān · be greedy, covet; covetous

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–3 · tan1 sheng1 pa4 si3

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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.

貪生怕死 · find source passages ↗ · 贪生怕死 · find source passages ↗

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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

(derogatory) to cravenly cling to life and fear death; to be cowardly and afraid of death

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

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