Definition
沧海 is a literary term meaning 'the vast blue sea', but it's rarely used alone in modern speech. You mostly encounter it in fixed phrases like 沧海桑田 (cāng hǎi sāng tián, 'the seas turn into mulberry fields' — a metaphor for immense change over time) and 沧海一粟 (cāng hǎi yī sù, 'a grain in the vast ocean' — a tiny, insignificant part of something huge). The word carries a poetic, classical weight and implies boundlessness or the transformative power of nature.
n
(literary) the vast blue sea(figurative) something immense or subject to great change (e.g., in idioms 沧海桑田, 沧海一粟)
Examples
- 著沧海，。Kàn zhe cāng hǎi, tā gǎndào zìjǐ shífēn miǎoxiǎo.Looking at the vast sea, he felt himself to be very small.
- ，沧海。Bú dào bǎi nián, zhèlǐ yǐ yóu cāng hǎi biàn wéi sāng tián.In less than a hundred years, this place has gone from a vast ocean to mulberry fields.
- ，沧海。Zài lìshǐ de cháng hé zhōng, gèrén de chéngjiù bú guò cāng hǎi yī sù.In the long river of history, an individual's achievements are but a drop in the ocean.
Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.