10 Respectful Chinese Idioms for Wishing Elders Happy New Year

Youthful despite old age

Literal: Crane hair, child face

Hair (发) white as a crane's (鹤) with the face (颜) of a child (童). Both halves are drawn from Daoist longevity literature, where the crane is a standard emblem of long life and the retained childlike complexion is what successful cultivation was supposed to produce. The phrase does not simply mean ol...

Youthful vigor despite old age

Literal: Dragon-horse spirit

The 龙马 is a single creature, not two: the dragon-horse that rose from the Yellow River bearing the diagram on its back, in the legend of how the trigrams were devised. So the phrase claims the vitality (精神) of a mythical beast rather than combining a dragon and a horse. It is used almost exclusively...

Experience brings wisdom

Literal: Old horse knows way

Returning from a campaign against Guzhu, the army of Duke Huan of Qi lost the road, and Guan Zhong proposed releasing the old horses (老马) and following them: they had walked the route before and would know the way (识途). They did, and the army got home. The Han Feizi tells it. What makes it a story r...

Remember your roots

Literal: Drink water think source

Yu Xin, writing in the sixth century, put it as 落其实者思其树，饮其流者怀其源 — who eats the fruit thinks of the tree, who drinks from the stream remembers its source. The four-character form keeps the second half: drink (饮) the water (水), think (思) of the source (源). It concerns debts owed rather than gratitude ...

Stay humble and open

Literal: Empty heart like valley

The Daodejing describes the man of old as being, among other things, open as a valley. A chest (怀) held empty (虚) like (若) a valley (谷) takes in whatever comes down into it, and the emptiness is a capacity rather than a lack. Chinese moral vocabulary is consistent about this: the chest is where tole...

Valuable, lasting advice

Literal: Gold and jade good words

Sound advice likened to gold (金) and jade (玉), the two materials Chinese tradition treats as both precious and enduring. Good words (良言) of this kind are not merely correct but worth keeping. 金石良言 is an equally established variant, substituting stone for jade — both forms are current, and neither is...

Live peacefully and work happily

Literal: Peaceful dwelling happy occupation

Settled in one's dwelling (安居) and content in one's work (乐业). The pairing covers the two halves of an ordinary life, house and livelihood, and Chinese political language has used it for two thousand years as the plain statement of what government is for. That is what gives it its weight: it is a mo...

Feel at ease with a clear conscience

Literal: Heart at peace, reason satisfied

The heart (心) at rest (安) because the reasoning (理) holds up (得). The two halves stand in a stated relation: the calm is not a temperament but a consequence, and it is available only to somebody who has actually checked. That is what makes the phrase useful, and also what makes it available for sarc...

Peace everywhere; universal harmony

Literal: Four seas rising in peace

The four seas (四海) — classical Chinese for everywhere, the world being bounded by them — rising into (升) peace (平). 升平 is a set term for an era in good order, and the phrase asserts that the order holds not merely at the centre but out to the edges. That reach is the whole content. It belongs to the...

Golden age of peace and prosperity

Literal: Great peace, flourishing era

A great (太) peace (平) and a flourishing (盛) age (世). 太平 is a term with real weight behind it — the condition of order a dynasty existed to produce, and the name a good many rebellions gave themselves. The phrase claims both halves at once, quiet and prosperous together, since either without the othe...