阎王好见，小鬼难当 yán wáng hǎo jiàn ， xiǎo guǐ nán dāng

underlings harder to deal with than the boss

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency Unknown

Definitions

  1. 1. lit. standing in front of the King of Hell is easy, but smaller devils are difficult to deal with (idiom)

Characters

Character Meaning
阎 yán
surname Yan; gate of village; Yama
王 wáng HSK 5
surname Wang; king or monarch
好 hǎo HSK 1
good; well; very
见 jiàn HSK 1
to see; to meet; to appear (to be sth)
小 xiǎo HSK 1
small; young; tiny
鬼 guǐ HSK 5
ghost; demon
难 nán HSK 3
difficult; difficult (to...); difficulty
当 dāng HSK 3
to be; to act as; should