📖 Meaning
Describes a minister or subject who is showered with excessive favor and honors from the ruler. It comes from ancient drinking ritual: wine is offered once with a one-sheng jue cup, but the toast is returned with a three-sheng gu cup, so one offering is answered with three toasts. Also written as 一献三售.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the 'Kaogong Ji' chapter of the Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou), compiled during the Zhou dynasty. The text records the woodworker (梓人) making drinking vessels: the ladle holds one sheng, the jue cup holds one sheng, and the gu cup holds three sheng. In the guest ritual, the host offers wine with the jue but the returning toast is drunk from the gu, so a single offering brings threefold toasts. Later generations used this imagery to describe a subject receiving lavish, disproportionate favor from the sovereign.
💡 Example Usage
他官居极品，一献三酬，恩宠之隆，举朝无人能及。
Holding the highest office, he was showered with extraordinary imperial favor, unmatched by anyone in the entire court.
🏷️ Category
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➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 一献三酬
- Pinyin: yī xiàn sān chóu
- Literal Translation: one, offer, three, toast
- Category: Status
- Characters: 4