Quan to thời ông phủ Đình, quan bé thời ông phủ Kiến
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Lower-ranking officials are more powerful when their superiors are absent
Quan chức thấp cấp powerful hơn khi cấp trên vắng mặt
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Examples
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-07; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Quan to thời ông phủ Đình, quan bé thời ông phủ Kiến” mean?
Lower-ranking officials are more powerful when their superiors are absent Literally: High-ranking official is the Mr. of Đình village, low-ranking official is the Mr. of Kiến village
Is “Quan to thời ông phủ Đình, quan bé thời ông phủ Kiến” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.