tīng qí yán ér guān qí xíngdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
hear what he says and observe what he does (idiom, from Analects); judge a person not by his words, but by his actions
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-e5d11e03abd23a32. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

聽其言而觀其行 听其言而观其行 [ting1 qi2 yan2 er2 guan1 qi2 xing2] /hear what he says and observe what he does (idiom, from Analects); judge a person not by his words, but by his actions/

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Reference information

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

Character information

Other forms in these source records: 聽其言而觀其行

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

听其言而观其行
Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.