老吾老,以及人之老

Mandarin · pinyin lǎo wú lǎo , yǐ jí rén zhī lǎo

Meanings

  1. to honor old people as we do our own aged parents
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Characters in this entry

老
lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
吾
wú · i, my, our; resist, impede
以
yǐ · by means of; thereby, therefore; consider as; in order to
及
jí · extend; reach; come up to; and
人
rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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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.

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老吾老,以及人之老 · lao3 wu2 lao3 , yi3 ji2 ren2 zhi1 lao3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 88,626
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record老吾老,以及人之老 老吾老,以及人之老 [lao3 wu2 lao3 , yi3 ji2 ren2 zhi1 lao3] /to honor old people as we do our own aged parents/