知人論世
zhī​rén​lùn​shì

to understand writers and their times

  • created sense approved 知人论世/知人論世 · zhī​rén​lùn​shì · to understand writers and their times — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    知人论世 / 知人論世

    zhī​rén​lùn​shì

    to understand writers and their times

    (literary) To evaluate a person by researching their historical background; also used to mean judging someone's character and discussing current affairs.

    知人 (literal) → 知人 · zhī​rén · to judge character 论 (literal) → 论/論 · lùn · to discuss 世 (literal) → 世 · shì · era

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

    created sense