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阎王好见，小鬼难当

Yán wáng hǎo jiàn , xiǎo guǐ nán dāngdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. standing in front of the King of Hell is easy, but smaller devils are difficult to deal with (idiom)
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-21d9925dbc16324a. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

閻王好見，小鬼難當 阎王好见，小鬼难当 [Yan2 wang2 hao3 jian4 , xiao3 gui3 nan2 dang1] /lit. standing in front of the King of Hell is easy, but smaller devils are difficult to deal with (idiom)/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 閻王好見，小鬼難當

  • 阎
    yán

    (literary) the gate of a lane

    Yán

    surname Yan (sometimes written 閆|闫[Yán] in recent years)

  • 王
    wáng

    king or monarch / best or strongest of its type / grand / great

    wàng

    (literary) (of a monarch) to reign over (a kingdom)

    Wáng

    surname Wang

  • 好
    hǎo

    good / appropriate / proper / all right! / (before a verb) easy to / (before a verb) good to / (before an adjective for exclamatory effect) so / (verb complement indicating completion) / (of two people) close / on intimate terms / (after a form of address) hello

    hào

    to be fond of / to have a tendency to / to be prone to

  • 见
    jiàn

    to see / to meet / to appear (to be sth) / to interview / opinion / view

    xiàn

    to appear / also written 現|现[xiàn]

  • 小
    xiǎo

    small / tiny / few / young

  • 鬼
    guǐ

    disembodied spirit / ghost / devil / (suffix) person with a certain vice or addiction etc / sly / crafty / resourceful (variant of 詭|诡[guǐ]) / one of the 28 constellations of ancient Chinese astronomy

  • 难
    nán

    difficult (to...) / problem / difficulty / difficult / not good

    nàn

    disaster / distress / to scold

  • 当
    dāng

    (onom.) dong / ding dong (bell) / to be / to act as / manage / withstand / when / during / ought / should / match equally / equal / same / obstruct / just at (a time or place) / on the spot / right / just at

    dàng

    at or in the very same... / suitable / adequate / fitting / proper / to replace / to regard as / to think / to pawn / (coll.) to fail (a student)

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.