礼尚往来 — Chinese idiom
礼尚往来
lǐ shàng wǎng lái
Traditional: 禮尚往來
Meaning
- lit. proper behavior is based on reciprocity
- fig. to return politeness for politeness
Character by character
- 礼lǐcourtesy, manners, social customs
- 尚shàngstill, yet; even; fairly, rather
- 往wǎngto go, to depart; past, former
- 来láito arrive, to come, to return; in the future, late
Idioms sharing a character
- 以礼相待 yǐ lǐ xiāng dài
- 傲慢无礼 ào màn wú lǐ
- 先礼后兵 xiān lǐ hòu bīng
- 博文约礼 bó wén yuē lǐ
- 敬贤礼士 jìng xián lǐ shì
- 礼仪之邦 lǐ yí zhī bāng
- 礼崩乐坏 lǐ bēng yuè huài
- 礼义廉耻 lǐ yì lián chǐ
- 顶礼膜拜 dǐng lǐ mó bài
- 好奇尚异 hào qí shàng yì
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.