Free Chinese & Japanese Online Dictionary

If you enter English words, search is Boolean mode:
Enter fall to get just entries with fall in them.
Enter fall* to get results including "falling" and "fallen".
Enter +fall -season -autumn to make sure fall is included, but not entries with autumn or season.

Key:

Mandarin Chinese information.
Old Wade-Giles romanization used only in Taiwan.
Japanese information.
Buddhist definition. Note: May not apply to all sects.
 Definition may be different outside of Buddhism.

There are 5 total results for your 上座 search.

Characters Pronunciation
Romanization
Simple Dictionary Definition

上座

see styles
shàng zuò
    shang4 zuo4
shang tso
 kamiza; jouza / kamiza; joza
    かみざ; じょうざ
seat of honor
(n,vs,adj-no) chief seat; seat of honor; seat of honour; head of the table; (place-name) Jōza
Sthavira; or Mahāsthavira. Old man, or elder; head monk, president, or abbot; the first Buddhist fathers; a title of Mahākāśyapa; also of monks of twenty to forty-nine years standing, as 中座 are from ten to nineteen and 下座 under ten. The 釋氏要覽 divides presiding elders into four classes, those presiding over monasteries, over assemblies of monks, over sects, and laymen presiding over feasts to monks.

上座部

see styles
shàng zuò bù
    shang4 zuo4 bu4
shang tso pu
 jouzabu / jozabu
    じょうざぶ
Theravada school of Buddhism
Sthaviravada (early Buddhist movement)
他毘梨典部; 他鞞羅部 Sthavirāḥ; Sthaviranikāya; or Āryasthāvirāḥ. The school of the presiding elder, or elders. The two earliest sections of Buddhism were this (which developed into the Mahāsthavirāḥ) and the Mahāsānghikāḥ or 大衆部. At first they were not considered to be different schools, the 上座部 merely representing the intimate and older disciples of Śākyamuni and the 大衆 being the rest. It is said that a century later under Mahādeva 大天 a difference of opinion arose on certain doctrines. Three divisions are named as resulting, viz. Mahāvihāravāsinaḥ, Jetavanīyāḥ, and Abhayagiri-vāsinaḥ. These were in Ceylon. In course of time the eighteen Hīnayāna sects were developed. From the time of Aśoka four principal schools are counted as prevailing: Mahāsāṅghika, Sthavira, Mūlasarvāstivda, and Saṁmitīya. The following is a list of the eleven sects reckoned as of the 上座部: 說一切有部; 雪山; 犢子; 法上; 賢冑; 正量; 密林山; 化地; 法藏; 飮光; and 經量部. The Sthaviravādin is reputed as nearest to early Buddhism in its tenets, though it is said to have changed the basis of Buddhism from an agnostic system to a realistic philosophy.

木上座

see styles
mù shàng zuò
    mu4 shang4 zuo4
mu shang tso
 bokujōza
The elder with the tree, or the wooden elder; the elder's staff.

上座部仏教

see styles
 jouzabubukkyou / jozabubukkyo
    じょうざぶぶっきょう
Theravada Buddhism

上座に据える

see styles
 kamizanisueru
    かみざにすえる
(exp,v1) to give (a guest) the seat of honor (honour)
This page contains 5 results for "上座" in Chinese and/or Japanese.



Information about this dictionary:

Apparently, we were the first ones who were crazy enough to think that western people might want a combined Chinese, Japanese, and Buddhist dictionary.

A lot of westerners can't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese - and there is a reason for that. Chinese characters and even whole words were borrowed by Japan from the Chinese language in the 5th century. Much of the time, if a word or character is used in both languages, it will have the same or a similar meaning. However, this is not always true. Language evolves, and meanings independently change in each language.

Example: The Chinese character 湯 for soup (hot water) has come to mean bath (hot water) in Japanese. They have the same root meaning of "hot water", but a 湯屋 sign on a bathhouse in Japan would lead a Chinese person to think it was a "soup house" or a place to get a bowl of soup. See this: Japanese Bath House

This dictionary uses the EDICT and CC-CEDICT dictionary files.
EDICT data is the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, and is used in conformance with the Group's license.

Chinese Buddhist terms come from Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms by William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous. This is commonly referred to as "Soothill's'". It was first published in 1937 (and is now off copyright so we can use it here). Some of these definitions may be misleading, incomplete, or dated, but 95% of it is good information. Every professor who teaches Buddhism or Eastern Religion has a copy of this on their bookshelf. We incorporated these 16,850 entries into our dictionary database ourselves (it was lot of work).



Combined, these cover 1,007,753 Japanese, Chinese, and Buddhist characters, words, idioms, names, placenames, and short phrases.

Just because a word appears here does not mean it is appropriate for a tattoo, your business name, etc. Please consult a professional before doing anything stupid with this data.

We do offer Chinese and Japanese Tattoo Services. We'll also be happy to help you translate something for other purposes.

No warranty as to the correctness, potential vulgarity, or clarity is expressed or implied. We did not write any of these definitions (though we occasionally act as a contributor/editor to the CC-CEDICT project). You are using this dictionary for free, and you get what you pay for.

The following titles are just to help people who are searching for an Asian dictionary to find this page.

Japanese Kanji Dictionary

Free Asian Dictionary

Chinese Kanji Dictionary

Chinese Words Dictionary

Chinese Language Dictionary

Japanese Chinese Dictionary