兒ér行xíng千qiān里lǐ母mǔ擔dān憂yōu

What does 兒行千里母擔憂 (ér xíng qiān lǐ mǔ dān yōu) mean?

兒行千里母擔憂 (ér xíng qiān lǐ mǔ dān yōu) is a folk proverb (yànyǔ 諺語). Word for word it reads "when a child travels a thousand li, the mother worries." In use it means: A parent's love reaches across any distance the child roams. You reach for it when you want that idea in one breath, and the Earth note it carries is why we hand it to those born in the Year of the Goat.

Literally: "when a child travels a thousand li, the mother worries."

The reading

However far you have gone to build your own life, there is someone counting the miles in the other direction. You may have stopped needing them to worry, but the worrying never asked your permission and never stops. Let them fret; it is the last long rope still tying you home.

The story

The line is preserved in the Zengguang Xianwen, a Ming-era primer of proverbs used to teach children, and it names a one-sided arithmetic: when a child travels a thousand li, the mother back home counts every one of them. It is spoken with tenderness of the worry that follows a grown child across any distance and never asks permission to stop.

What kind of proverb it is

• Typeyànyǔ 諺語
• FocusLooks back
• Element土 Earth
• Zodiac tie羊 Year of the Goat

Source 增廣賢文

Sits beside

Keep reading

Return to the Proverb Pond to draw another of the eighty-seven, or hear one read aloud. Read the rest of its chapter in Home, Family & Roots, or follow the years these lines belong to: Year of the Goat, Year of the Ox, and Year of the Pig.