授人以魚不如授人以漁
简 授人以鱼不如授人以渔 · 繁 授人以魚不如授人以漁Meanings
- give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
- knowledge is the best charity
Characters in this entry
- 授
- shòu · give to, transmit; confer
- 人
- rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
- 以
- yǐ · by means of; thereby, therefore; consider as; in order to
- 魚
- yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 如
- rú · if, supposing; as if; like, as
- 漁
- Look up this written character
- 鱼
- yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195
- 渔
- yú · to fish; seize; pursue; surname
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
4–2–3–2–4–2–4–2–3–2 · shou4 ren2 yi3 yu2 bu4 ru2 shou4 ren2 yi3 yu2
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
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.
授人以魚不如授人以漁 · find source passages ↗ · 授人以鱼不如授人以渔 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
sau6 jan4 ji5 jyu4 bat1 jyu4 sau6 jan4 ji5 jyu4
Cantonese word readings for 授人以魚不如授人以漁. 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.
proverb
- give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
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