猿鹤虫沙 / 猿鶴蟲沙

yuán​hè​chóng​shā

casualties of war

soldiers who died in battle or civilians killed in the chaos of war; literally refers to the legend of an army being transformed into apes, cranes, insects, and sand

猿 (literal) → 猿 · yuán · ape 鹤 (literal) → 鹤/鶴 · hè · crane 虫 (literal) → 虫/蟲 · chóng · insect 沙 (literal) → 沙 · shā · sand

Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:58 PM