天高皇帝遠
简 天高皇帝远 · 繁 天高皇帝遠Meanings
- lit. the sky is high and the emperor is far away (idiom)
- fig. remote places are beyond the reach of the central government
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Mandarin tones
1–1–2–4–3 · tian1 gao1 huang2 di4 yuan3
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
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Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.
天高皇帝遠 · find source passages ↗ · 天高皇帝远 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
tin1 gou1 wong4 dai3 jyun5
Cantonese word readings for 天高皇帝遠. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
phrase
- (idiomatic) to be faraway from the central government and therefore beyond its control
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
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