一见如故

Pronunciation: yī jiàn rú gù Literal meaning: Meet like old friends

Origin & Usage

Ji Zha of Wu, travelling as an envoy, met Zichan of Zheng and the Zuo Zhuan says they took to each other at once, as though they had been friends for years — meeting once (一见) and being like (如) old acquaintances (故). They exchanged gifts and talked about the fate of Zichan's state, which suggests what the phrase actually rests on: not warmth but recognition, the sense of having found someone whose judgement runs the same way as your own. It remains one of the warmest things a Chinese speaker can say about a first meeting.

Examples

English: "When they met for the first time, it felt as if they had known each other forever."

Chinese: 他们一见如故，仿佛是老朋友。