tang hải
Definition
- Noun:
- A vast sea: A poetic and literary term referring to an immense, boundless ocean. It evokes a sense of vastness and depth.
- Great calamity / Sea of bitterness: A metaphorical meaning describing a tremendous disaster, catastrophe, or a profound, overwhelming period of suffering and misfortune, likened to being lost in a vast, treacherous sea.
Usage Examples
- Noun:
- Sau trận động đất, cả vùng chìm trong tang hải. (After the earthquake, the entire region was submerged in a sea of calamity.)
- Câu chuyện kể về nỗi đau tang hải của một dân tộc. (The story tells of the sea of bitterness [profound suffering] of a nation.)
- Thuyền nhỏ lênh đênh giữa tang hải mênh mông. (The small boat drifts on the vast, boundless sea.)
Advanced Usage
- This word is primarily used in formal, literary, or poetic contexts. It is not used in everyday conversation. It often carries a solemn, tragic, or epic tone when describing disasters or profound grief.
Variants and Related Words
- Bể khổ (n): sea of sorrow; a Buddhist-inspired term for the world of suffering.
- Tai ương (n): calamity, disaster (less literary than tang hải).
- Họa lớn (n): great catastrophe.
Synonyms
- Cataclysm: a large-scale and violent event in the natural world.
- Great calamity: an event causing great and often sudden damage or distress.
- Profound misfortune: deep and intense bad luck or suffering.
Related Idioms
- Tang thương dâu bể / Bãi bể nương dâu: This idiom describes the great, inevitable changes of life and the world (where mulberry fields turn into a vast sea). It shares the thematic element of vast, transformative change with tang hải.
- Cuộc đời nhiều lúc tang thương dâu bể. (Life often has its great, transformative upheavals.)