vua đi trước, làng nước theo sau
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Leaders set an example for others to follow
Literally: King goes first, village and country follow
Examples
Khi thấy vua đi trước, làng nước cũng theo sauWhen the king leads the way, the village and country follow
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 “vua đi trước, làng nước theo sau” mean?
Leaders set an example for others to follow Literally: King goes first, village and country follow
Is “vua đi trước, làng nước theo sau” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.