人生天地间

人生天地間
rén shēng tiāndì jiān
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 a human life between heaven and earth
  2. 2 the brief, cosmic-scale insignificance of a single life
  3. 3 human life heaven-earth between

Examples

Rénshēng tiāndì jiān, hū rú yuǎnxíng kè, Gǔshī Shíjiǔ Shǒu qiānnián bùxiǔ.
'A human life between heaven and earth, sudden as a far-traveling guest' - the Nineteen Old Poems are immortal through the ages.
Xiǎngdào rénshēng tiāndì jiān, zài dà de fánnǎo yě xiǎnde miǎoxiǎo.
Considering 'a human life between heaven and earth,' even the biggest worries seem small.

Tips

history
From 《古诗十九首·青青陵上柏》 (Nineteen Old Poems, 'Green Green the Cypress on the Mound,' Eastern Han, ~2nd c. CE): 青青陵上柏磊磊涧中石人生天地间忽如远行客 (Green green the cypress on the mound, piled piled the stones in the stream. A human life between heaven and earth, as sudden as a guest traveling far). The Nineteen Old Poems establish much of the Chinese vocabulary of mortality; this line is the one most frequently reused.
usage
Always paired with 忽如远行客 - together they make the classic two-line existential statement. The line is echoed in 李白杜甫苏轼 and countless later poets; a foundational Chinese meditation on finitude.

Stroke Order

rén
shēng
tiān
jiān