生老病死 in Chinese / Japanese...

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Birth Old-Age Sickness Death

Born to Suffer

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shēng lǎo bìng sǐ

shou rou byou shi

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生老病死 means “to be born, to grow old, to get sick and to die” or “birth, aging, sickness, and death.”

This is an old somewhat-morbid Chinese proverb that is also used in Korean and Japanese. It figuratively means the fate of humankind (i.e. mortality) or suggests that we are all born to suffer.

In the Buddhist context, there are the “four inevitables in human life” or “four afflictions that are the lot of every human” known as “四苦” (literally “four afflictions”). Sometimes this proverb is written with that affliction character, 苦, at the end like 生老病死苦.

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Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your 生老病死 search...

Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese	Pronunciation Romanization	Simple Dictionary Definition
生老病死 see styles	shēng lǎo bìng sǐ sheng1 lao3 bing4 si3 sheng lao ping ssu shouroubyoushi / shorobyoshi しょうろうびょうし	More info & calligraphy: Birth Old-Age Sickness Death lit. to be born, to grow old, to get sick and to die (idiom); fig. the fate of humankind (i.e. mortality) (yoji) {Buddh} the four inevitables in human life (birth, aging, sickness, and death) Birth, age, sickness, death, the 四苦 four afflictions that are the lot of every man. The five are the above four and 苦 misery, or suffering.
生老病死苦 see styles	shēng lǎo bìng sǐ kǔ sheng1 lao3 bing4 si3 ku3 sheng lao ping ssu k`u sheng lao ping ssu ku shōrōbyōshi ku	生老病死苦 Custom Scroll suffering of birth, age, sickness, death

The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...

Title	Characters	Romaji (Romanized Japanese)	Various forms of Romanized Chinese
Birth Old-Age Sickness Death	生老病死	shou rou byou shi shouroubyoushi sho ro byo shi	shēng lǎo bìng sǐ sheng1 lao3 bing4 si3 sheng lao bing si shenglaobingsi	sheng lao ping ssu shenglaopingssu