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人之將死,其言也善

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Chinese

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man; person; people 's; him/her/it; this
a general; (will, shall, "future tense"); ready
a general; (will, shall, "future tense"); ready; prepared; to get; to use
 
to die; impassable; uncrossable
to die; impassable; uncrossable; inflexible; rigid
 
his; her; its
his; her; its; theirs; that; such; it (refers to something preceding it)
 
to speak; to say; talk
to speak; to say; talk; word
 
also; too good
trad. (人之將死,其言也善)
simp. (人之将死,其言也善)

Etymology

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From the Analects, Book 8 (《論語·泰伯》):

「曾子,孟敬子。曾子:『人之將死,其言也善。』」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
「曾子,孟敬子。曾子:『人之将死,其言也善。』」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: The Analects of Confucius, c. 475 – 221 BCE, translated based on James Legge's version
“Zēngzǐ yǒu jí, Mèng Jìng Zǐ wèn zhī. Zēngzǐ yán yuē: ‘Niǎo zhī jiāng sǐ, qí míng yě āi; rén zhī jiāng sǐ, qí yán yě shàn.’” [Pinyin]
The philosopher Zeng being ill, Meng Jing went to ask how he was. Zeng said to him, "When a bird is about to die, its notes are mournful; when a man is about to die, his words are good."

Pronunciation

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Proverb

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人之將死,其言也善

  1. A person's words are kind when death is near.