配享太庙pèi xiǎng tài miào

太庙 was the temple where an emperor honored his ancestors. 配享 means to be honored beside them. An official with great service to the throne could get a tablet there after his death. One article counts fewer than two hundred such officials in all of Chinese history.

The meme gives this honor to anyone who makes life a little easier: a roommate who buys breakfast, or whoever invented air conditioning. The bigger the gap between the honor and the deed, the better the joke.

It is still common in comments and chats, and it is always a joke. Say it to a friend who did you a favor, or about the person behind an invention you love.

The line comes from 知否知否应是绿肥红瘦, a 2018 TV drama set in the Song dynasty, known in English as The Story of Ming Lan. Lady Wang, the first wife of the family in the story, often says 我父亲配享太庙, “my father is honored in the imperial temple”. She says it in arguments, as a warning: her family is powerful, so do not cross her. The Yangtse Evening Post explains the line.

Clips of the line spread on Douyin, and people turned the honor into praise. Douyin put 配享太庙 on its list of the ten popular phrases of 2023, according to a report by the research firm Civiw. The sources do not say when the clips first took off.