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人固有一死

réngùyǒuyīsǐ
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 everyone must die sooner or later
  2. 2 death comes to all of us
  3. 3 (lit.) a person is bound to have one death

Examples

人固有一死，关键是活得有没有意义。
Rén gù yǒu yī sǐ, guānjiàn shì huó dé yǒu méiyǒu yìyì.
Everyone must die in the end — what matters is whether you lived meaningfully.
他常引用"人固有一死"来劝人看淡生死。
Tā cháng yǐnyòng "rén gù yǒu yī sǐ" lái quàn rén kàndàn shēngsǐ.
He often quotes 'everyone must die' to urge people not to fear death.

Tips

history
From Sima Qian's (司马迁) Han-dynasty 《报任安书》 (Letter to Ren An). The full line is 『人固有一死，或重于泰山，或轻于鸿毛』— 'everyone must die, but some deaths are weightier than Mount Tai, and some lighter than a goose feather.' Sima wrote it while enduring palace castration rather than suicide, explaining why he had to live to finish the 《史记》 (Records of the Grand Historian).
usage
The first half almost always appears with the Mount Tai / goose-feather contrast implied. Still widely quoted in eulogies and essays on mortality.

Stroke Order

人 rén
固 gù
有 yǒu
一 yī
死 sǐ