📖 Meaning
Rank and official position take precedence over a person's age or seniority. In formal or organizational settings, precedence is determined by one's post rather than by how old or long-lived one is. It underscores that hierarchy is governed by office, not by age.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom arises from traditional Chinese bureaucratic culture, where official rank and formal position strictly governed protocol, seating, and the order of address at court or in yamen. Even an elderly low-ranking official had to defer to a younger superior, since the system valued the office over the individual. It reflects the formalistic organizational ethos of imperial officialdom and persisted into modern institutional etiquette. No single classical text is cited as its definitive source; it circulated as a proverbial phrase in administrative and workplace contexts.
💡 Example Usage
朝廷礼制讲究寿不压职，年长的七品官也得向年轻的四品上司行礼。
Court etiquette insisted that age does not override rank; even an elderly seventh-grade official had to bow to a younger fourth-grade superior.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 寿不压职
- Pinyin: shòu bù yā zhí
- Literal Translation: age, not, override, position
- Category: Status
- Characters: 4