有生 (yǒu shēng) — (literary) animate, living

Definition

Literary/technical word for 'animate, living' — used in formal writing (e.g. 有生之年 'in one's lifetime'), not in everyday speech. Contrast with the plain modern 活/活着.

adjective
(literary) animateliving
Easily confused

Examples

  • ，有生。
    Zhòng shēng píng děng, yǒu shēng zhī wù jiē kě guì.
    All beings are equal; all living things are precious.
  • 。
    Tā zài yǒu shēng zhī nián wán chéng le zhè yì wěi yè.
    He accomplished this great feat in his lifetime.
  • 有生。
    Zhé xué jiā sī kǎo yǒu shēng yǔ sǐ wáng de yì yì.
    Philosophers ponder the meaning of life and death.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

有yǒuhave
生shēnglife

有 and 生 give having life, hence animate or living.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
肉肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
又
又yòu有yǒu
Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

生 shows 屮 (a bud) above 一 (the ground), drawing a sprout coming up from the earth.

Open 生 →

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