牡丹虽好，全凭绿叶扶持
mǔ​dan​suī​hǎo​quán​píng​lǜ​yè​fú​chí

however brilliant you are, you still need support

  • created sense approved 牡丹虽好，全凭绿叶扶持/牡丹雖好，全憑綠葉扶持 · mǔ​dan​suī​hǎo​quán​píng​lǜ​yè​fú​chí · however brilliant you are, you still need support — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    牡丹虽好，全凭绿叶扶持 / 牡丹雖好，全憑綠葉扶持

    mǔ​dan​suī​hǎo​quán​píng​lǜ​yè​fú​chí

    however brilliant you are, you still need support

    Literally translated as "although the peony is beautiful, it depends entirely on help from its green leaves"; used as an idiom to mean that even the most capable person cannot succeed without the assistance and support of others.

    牡丹 (literal) → 牡丹 · mǔ​dan · peony 虽 (literal) → 虽/雖 · suī · although 好 (literal) → 好 · hǎo · good ， (non_chinese) 全 (literal) → 全 · quán · completely 凭 (literal) → 凭/憑 · píng · to rely on 绿叶 (literal) → 绿叶/綠葉 · lǜ​yè · green leaves 扶持 (literal) → 扶持 · fú​chí · to aid

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense