生灵涂炭 — Chinese idiom
生灵涂炭
shēng líng tú tàn
Traditional: 生靈塗炭
Meaning
- people are in a terrible situation
Character by character
- 生shēnglife, lifetime; birth; growth
- 灵língspirit, soul; spiritual world
- 涂túto smear, to scribble, to daub; surname
- 炭tàncarbon, charcoal, coal
Idioms sharing a character
- 一生一世 yī shēng yī shì
- 一线生机 yī xiàn shēng jī
- 七窍生烟 qī qiào shēng yān
- 三生有幸 sān shēng yǒu xìng
- 九死一生 jiǔ sǐ yī shēng
- 了无生趣 liǎo wú shēng qù
- 人生如梦 rén shēng rú mèng
- 人生朝露 rén shēng zhāo lù
- 再生父母 zài shēng fù mǔ
- 出生入死 chū shēng rù sǐ
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.