山中無老虎,猴子稱大王

简 山中无老虎,猴子称大王 · 繁 山中無老虎,猴子稱大王
Mandarin · pinyin shān zhōng wú lǎo hǔ , hóu zi chēng dà wáng

Meanings

  1. in the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king (idiom)
  2. (depending on the source, the last word is either 大王 dà wáng or 大王 dài wang)
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

山
shān · mountain, hill, peak
中
zhōng · central; center, middle; in the midst of; hit (target); attain
無
Look up this written character
老
lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
虎
hǔ · tiger; brave, fierce; surname
猴
hóu · monkey, ape; monkey-like
子
zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
稱
Look up this written character
大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
王
wáng · king, ruler; royal; surname
无
wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
称
chēng · call; name, brand; address; say
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

10character links2source references
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

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.

山中無老虎,猴子稱大王 · find source passages ↗ · 山中无老虎,猴子称大王 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

山中無老虎,猴子稱大王 · shan1 zhong1 wu2 lao3 hu3 , hou2 zi5 cheng1 da4 wang2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 35,632
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record山中無老虎,猴子稱大王 山中无老虎,猴子称大王 [shan1 zhong1 wu2 lao3 hu3 , hou2 zi5 cheng1 da4 wang2] /in the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king (idiom)/(depending on the source, the last word is either 大王[da4 wang2] or 大王[dai4 wang5])/