恭敬不如从命 Save Sign in to save words Traditional (Taiwan): 恭敬不如從命 gōngjìngbùrúcóngmìng ㄍㄨㄥ ㄐㄧㄥˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄖㄨˊ ㄘㄨㄥˊ ㄇㄧㄥˋ deference is no substitute for obedience (idiom) (said to accept sb's request, invitation etc) Character by character 恭(gōng)respectful 敬(jìng)respectful 不(bù)no 如(rú)as 从(cóng)from 命(mìng)life A Chinese word or character, or English Search Sources CC-CEDICT, CC BY-SA 4.0 pinyinjs, Apache-2.0