灌瓜之义 — “To show magnanimity and repay hostility with kindness”

灌瓜之义 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to show magnanimity and repay hostility with kindness”. Resolving conflicts peacefully rather than letting small disputes escalate. Literally, “The righteousness of irrigating melons”.

Frequency

灌瓜之义 Pronunciation and Pinyin

灌瓜之义 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
灌	guàn	21	pour, irrigate, record
瓜	guā	5	Melon or gourd
之	zhī	4	possessive or connective particle
义	yì	3	righteousness, justice, meaning

Example Sentence with 灌瓜之义

面对邻里的误解，他选择了灌瓜之义，主动帮助对方，最终化解了矛盾。

Faced with a misunderstanding from his neighbor, he chose the principle of 'Guangua zhi Yi' (irrigating the melons), proactively helped the other party, and ultimately resolved the conflict.

Origin and Story of 灌瓜之义

Legend has it that in ancient times, both the states of Liang and Chu had many melons planted along their shared border. The people of Chu, jealous that the Liang people's melons grew better, took advantage of nightfall to destroy all of Liang's melons.

However, the Liang people did not retaliate. Under the guidance of magistrate Song, they went at night to water the Chu people's melons. As a result, the Chu people's melons grew better day by day.

When the King of Chu heard about this, he expressed his gratitude with a generous reward and declared a lasting friendship.