小人 xiǎorén
-
xiǎorén
noun
a vulgar person; a person of little virtue; xiaoren
Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
Notes: Literally, 小人 means 'a small man' but in Confucian thought it means the opposite of 君子 'a benevolent person.' (Yao 2000, p. 214) For example, 君子周而不比，小人比而不周。 'The superior man [junzi] is catholic [broad-minded] and not partisan. The mean man [xiaoren] is partisan and not catholic [broad-minded.' (Lunyu 2:14, trans. by Legge 1861; CC-CEDICT '小人'; Guoyu '小人' 3) -
xiǎorén
noun
a short person
Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
Notes: In contrast to a 巨人 giant (Guoyu '小人' 1) -
xiǎorén
noun
a commoner
Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
Notes: (CC-CEDICT '小人'; Guoyu '小人' 2) -
xiǎorén
pronoun
I; me
Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
Notes: A humble self reference (CC-CEDICT '小人'; Guoyu '小人' 4)
Contained in
- 大人不记小人过(大人不記小人過) a person of great moral stature does not remember the offenses committed by one of low moral stature
- 势利小人(勢利小人) snob
- 小人书(小人書) children's picture story book
- 以小人之心，度君子之腹 to gauge the heart of a gentleman with one's own mean measure
- 远小人(遠小人) lowly men kept at a distance
- 君子坦荡荡，小人长戚戚(君子坦蕩蕩，小人長戚戚) good people are at peace with themselves, (but) there is no rest for the wicked
- 小人得志 a vile character flourishes
- 小人物 nonentity; a nobody
- 小人精 exceptionally bright kid; child prodigy
Word is mentioned most frequently in
Truncated for common words
- 第二十六回 Chapter 26 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 28
- 第十七回 Chapter 17 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 26
- 第二十七回 Chapter 27 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 25
- Full Text Canon of Supreme Mystery 太玄經 — count: 25
- 第二回 Chapter 2 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 24
- 第八回 Chapter 8 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 23
- 卷二百五十五 列傳第一百四十三 劉宗周 黃道周 Volume 255 Biographies 143: Liu Zongzhou, Huang Daozhou History of Ming 明史 — count: 23
- 第四十七回 Chapter 47 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 17
- 榮辱篇第四 Chapter 4: Honor and Disgrace Xunzi 荀子 — count: 17
- 第二十八回 Chapter 28 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 16
Collocations
- 小人食 (小人食) 小人食於力 — Guanzi 管子, 法法第十六 Chapter 16: Fa Fa — count: 3
- 近小人 (近小人) 刺近小人也 — The Book of Songs 詩經, 國風‧曹‧候人 Lessons from the states - Odes of Cao - Hou Ren — count: 3
- 小人怀 (小人懷) 小人懷璧 — The Commentary of Zuo on the Spring and Autumn Annals 春秋左氏傳, 襄公 Lord Xiang — count: 3
- 小人在位 (小人在位) 小人在位 — The Book of Songs 詩經, 小雅‧甫田之什‧裳裳者華 Minor odes of the kingdom - Fu Tian Zhi Shen - Chang Chang Zhe Hua — count: 3
- 小人道 (小人道) 小人道消也 — Book of Changes 易經, 泰 Tai — count: 3
- 城小人 (城小人) 城小人眾 — Mozi 墨子, 卷十四 備城門 Book 14 - Fortification of the City Gate — count: 2
- 小人反 (小人反) 小人反是 — The Analects of Confucius 論語, 12. 《顏淵》 Yan Yuan — count: 2
- 小人曰 (小人曰) 小人曰 — The Commentary of Zuo on the Spring and Autumn Annals 春秋左氏傳, 僖公 Lord Xi — count: 2
- 小人用 (小人用) 小人用壯 — Book of Changes 易經, 大壯 Da Zhuang — count: 2
- 小人众 (小人眾) 城小人眾 — Mozi 墨子, 卷十四 備城門 Book 14 - Fortification of the City Gate — count: 2