禮輕人意重

简 礼轻人意重 · 繁 禮輕人意重
Mandarin · pinyin lǐ qīng rén yì zhòng

Meanings

  1. slight present but weighty meaning (idiom); It's not the present the counts, it's the thought behind it.
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Characters in this entry

禮
lǐ · social custom; manners; courtesy; rites
輕
qīng · light; easy, simple; gentle
人
rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
意
yì · thought, idea, opinion; think
重
zhòng · heavy, weighty; double
礼
lǐ · social custom; manners; courtesy; rites
轻
qīng · light; easy, simple; gentle
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–1–2–4–4 · li3 qing1 ren2 yi4 zhong4

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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.

禮輕人意重 · find source passages ↗ · 礼轻人意重 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lai5 hing1 jan4 ji3 zung6

Cantonese word readings for 禮輕人意重. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

禮輕人意重 · li3 qing1 ren2 yi4 zhong4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 81,077
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record禮輕人意重 礼轻人意重 [li3 qing1 ren2 yi4 zhong4] /slight present but weighty meaning (idiom); It's not the present the counts, it's the thought behind it./