A Goat in Tiger's Skin (also
known as 'An Ass in a Lion's Skin')
| Characters: |
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Pronunciation:
yang(2) zhi(4) hu(3) pi(2)
Explanation:
Said of a person who looks strong on the outside,
but is timid inside
Tone:
Negative
The
Story: A goat once found a tiger's skin
in the woods. It placed the tiger' skin on
its body and strutted around the woods. But
when he saw some tender grass, it began to
eat as usual.
One
day, it saw a wolf coming towards him. Forgetting
that it was wearing in the tiger's skin, the
goat fled as fast as it could. After all,
the goat never forgot it was actually a goat.
Usage
Example (Pinyin): Ji(4) shi(4) ni(3) zai(4)
gei(3) ta(1) zhuang(1) bei(4) liang(3) ba(3)
qiang(1), ta(1) hai(2) shi(4) hai(4) pa(4).
Zhe(4) jiu(4) xiang(4) yang(2) zhi(4) hu(3)
pi(2).
Usage
Example (English translation): Even if
you equipped him with 2 more guns, he will
still feel fearful and like 'a goat in tiger's
skin'.
Note:
The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4
spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create
those above where after each syllable we tell
you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond
to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to
complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms
newsletter with a good offline study program.
