吾生也有涯

wúshēngyěyǒuyá

phrase

Meanings

1 my life has its limit
2 Zhuangzi's opening premise — human life is finite, but knowledge is infinite

Characters

(classical topic particle)

Examples

"吾生也有涯，而知也无涯"——庄子这句话，学术界最爱引用。

"Wú shēng yě yǒu yá, ér zhī yě wú yá" — Zhuāngzǐ zhè jù huà, xuéshùjiè zuì ài yǐnyòng.

'My life has a limit, but knowledge is limitless' — academia's favorite Zhuangzi quotation.

吾生也有涯，所以我决定不再加班熬夜。

Wú shēng yě yǒu yá, suǒyǐ wǒ juédìng bù zài jiābān áoyè.

My life has a limit, so I've decided to stop pulling all-nighters at work.

Tips

history

Opening of 《庄子·养生主》: '吾生也有涯，而知也无涯。以有涯随无涯，殆已.' Zhuangzi warns that chasing infinite knowledge with a finite life is dangerous — a Daoist argument for 养生 (nurturing life) over exhaustion.

usage

吾 (wú) = classical 'I' (modern 我). 也 here is NOT 'also' — it's the classical copula-like particle marking the subject ('as for my life…'). 涯 (yá) = 'shore / limit.'

Stroke Order

吾 wú

生 shēng

也 yě

有 yǒu

涯 yá