Chinese idioms from the Dao De Jing
轻诺寡信 (qīng nuò guǎ xìn)
Reworked from chapter 63
轻诺寡信 (qīng nuò guǎ xìn), “light promises, little trust”, shortens “Light promises always earn little trust” in chapter 63 of the Dao De Jing: whoever promises easily is seldom believed.
Character by character
| 轻 | qīng | light; to slight |
|---|---|---|
| 诺 | nuò | promise |
| 寡 | guǎ | few, to lessen |
| 信 | xìn | trust, good faith |
| 轻诺寡信 | Someone who promises lightly seldom keeps their word, and so earns little trust. | |
Where it comes from
The idiom is not in the text as such: it reworks the line 轻诺必寡信.
-
夫轻诺必寡信，
Light promises always earn little trust;
How the meaning moved
Chapter 63 says: “Light promises always earn little trust; taking much as easy always brings much difficulty.” The idiom keeps the first half and drops the particle 夫 and 必, “always”. In the chapter the promise is one example of a wider fault: treating things as easy. The chapter goes on: “So the sage treats things as difficult, and so in the end has no difficulty.” Whoever weighs a promise before making it can keep it.
Today 轻诺寡信 is said of people, as a reproach: someone who says yes to everything and does little of it. It is used in this sense in the Liaozhai, Pu Songling's seventeenth-century book of strange tales, where a character says, “Our family is not one that promises lightly and keeps little faith.” Its opposites are 一诺千金, a promise worth a thousand pieces of gold, and 说一不二, meaning what one says.
Using it today
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他总是轻诺寡信，答应的事十有八九做不到。
tā zǒng shì qīng nuò guǎ xìn, dā ying de shì shí yǒu bā jiǔ zuò bù dào.
He is always making light promises: nine times out of ten he doesn't do what he agreed to.
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做生意最怕轻诺寡信，说到就要做到。
zuò shēng yi zuì pà qīng nuò guǎ xìn, shuō dào jiù yào zuò dào.
In business the worst thing is to promise lightly and keep little faith: what you say, you must do.