禮輕人意重,千里送鵝毛

简 礼轻人意重,千里送鹅毛 · 繁 禮輕人意重,千里送鵝毛
Mandarin · pinyin lǐ qīng rén yì zhòng , qiān lǐ sòng é máo

Meanings

  1. goose feather sent from afar, a 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
千
qiān · thousand; many, numerous; very; (Cant.) a cheater, swindler
里
lǐ · unit of distance; village; lane; Kangxi radical 166
送
sòng · see off, send off; dispatch, give
鵝
Look up this written character
毛
máo · hair, fur, feathers; coarse
礼
lǐ · social custom; manners; courtesy; rites
轻
qīng · light; easy, simple; gentle
鹅
é · goose
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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.

禮輕人意重,千里送鵝毛 · find source passages ↗ · 礼轻人意重,千里送鹅毛 · find source passages ↗

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禮輕人意重,千里送鵝毛 · li3 qing1 ren2 yi4 zhong4 , qian1 li3 song4 e2 mao2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 81,078
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record禮輕人意重,千里送鵝毛 礼轻人意重,千里送鹅毛 [li3 qing1 ren2 yi4 zhong4 , qian1 li3 song4 e2 mao2] /goose feather sent from afar, a slight present but weighty meaning (idiom); It's not the present the counts, it's the thought behind it./