bán anh em xa, mua láng-diềng gần
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Sell the distant kin, buy the near neighbor — proximity outbids blood when the lamp goes out.
sự gần gũi quan trọng hơn quan hệ huyết thống khi cần giúp đỡ
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Examples
Editorial example (VI sweep batch 040, illustrative)
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 is an original editorial synthesis, not copied from the source.
Common questions
What does “bán anh em xa, mua láng-diềng gần” mean?
Sell the distant kin, buy the near neighbor — proximity outbids blood when the lamp goes out. Literally: sell far siblings, buy close neighbors
Is “bán anh em xa, mua láng-diềng gần” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.