Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

ơn vua giấy vàng, ơn làng giấy trắng

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Gratitude towards a higher authority is more valued than towards a local one

Literally: the king's favor is golden paper, the village's favor is white paper

Examples

Tôi luôn nhớ ơn vua giấy vàng của bố tôiI always remember the great favor my father received from the higher authority

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 “ơn vua giấy vàng, ơn làng giấy trắng” mean?

Gratitude towards a higher authority is more valued than towards a local one Literally: the king's favor is golden paper, the village's favor is white paper

Is “ơn vua giấy vàng, ơn làng giấy trắng” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.