威尊命贱 — Chinese idiom
威尊命贱
wēi zūn mìng jiàn
Traditional: 威尊命賤
Meaning
- the dignity of authority is above life; one must be willing to sacrifice one's life rather than disobey a military order
Character by character
- 威wēimight, power, prestige; to dominate
- 尊zūnto honor, to respect, to venerate
- 命mìnglife; destiny, fate, luck; an order, instruction
- 贱jiàncheap, low, mean, worthless
Idioms sharing a character
- 不怒而威 bù nù ér wēi
- 作威作福 zuò wēi zuò fú
- 威福自己 wēi fú zì jǐ
- 威震天下 wēi zhèn tiān xià
- 恩威兼施 ēn wēi jiān shī
- 狐假虎威 hú jiǎ hǔ wēi
- 耀武扬威 yào wǔ yáng wēi
- 妄自尊大 wàng zì zūn dà
- 安富尊荣 ān fù zūn róng
- 定于一尊 dìng yú yī zūn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.