| 一言九鼎 |
yī yán jiǔ dǐng |
one word worth nine sacred tripods (idiom); words of enormous weight |
| 一 |
yī |
one / single / a (article) / as soon as / entire; whole; all; throughout / "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1) / also pr. [yao1] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit |
| 一言 |
yī yán |
one sentence / brief remark |
| 言 |
yán |
words / speech / to say / to talk |
| 九 |
jiǔ |
nine / 9 |
| 九鼎 |
Jiǔ Dǐng |
the Nine Tripod Cauldrons, symbol of state power, dating back to the Xia Dynasty |
| 鼎 |
dǐng |
ancient cooking cauldron with two looped handles and three or four legs / pot (dialect) / to enter upon a period of (classical) / Kangxi radical 206 / one of the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes |