ăn sứ Bắc, mặc sứ Kinh
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To be extremely refined and elegant
Literally: eat Bureau of the North, wear Bureau of the Capital
Examples
Cô ấy ăn sứ Bắc, mặc sứ Kinh, rất được mọi người kính trọngShe eats Bureau of the North, wears Bureau of the Capital, and is very respected by everyone
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “ăn sứ Bắc, mặc sứ Kinh” mean?
To be extremely refined and elegant Literally: eat Bureau of the North, wear Bureau of the Capital
Is “ăn sứ Bắc, mặc sứ Kinh” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.