沧海桑田 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. the blue sea turned into mulberry fields
• fig. the transformations of the world

Character by character

• 沧cāngazure, cold, vast (all as of the sea)
• 海hǎisea, ocean; maritime
• 桑sāngmulberry tree; surname
• 田tiánfield, farm, arable land; cultivated

Idioms sharing a character

• 曾经沧海 céng jīng cāng hǎi
• 沧海一粟 cāng hǎi yī sù
• 沧海遗珠 cāng hǎi yí zhū
• 人山人海 rén shān rén hǎi
• 侯门似海 hóu mén sì hǎi
• 刀山火海 dāo shān huǒ hǎi
• 名扬四海 míng yáng sì hǎi
• 四海升平 sì hǎi shēng píng
• 四海为家 sì hǎi wéi jiā
• 四海飘零 sì hǎi piāo líng

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.