朝三暮四
Chinese
morning; to face; towards morning; to face; towards; facing; direct; a dynasty; the imperial court; Korea, esp. N. Korea (abbrev.) |
three | evening; dusk; sunset evening; dusk; sunset; (of time) late; closing |
four | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
trad. (朝三暮四) | 朝 | 三 | 暮 | 四 | |
simp. #(朝三暮四) | 朝 | 三 | 暮 | 四 | |
anagrams | 朝四暮三 暮四朝三 | ||||
Literally: “three in the morning, and four in the evening”. |
Etymology
From a parable seen both in Zhuangzi and Liezi.
- There was a man keeping monkeys as pets. He once decided to feed them less. He told the monkeys, "I will feed you three acorns in the morning, and four in the evening." The monkeys all went angry. But he later said, "How about four in the morning, and three in the evening?" The monkeys all became happy.[1][2][3]
Pronunciation
- Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)+
- Hanyu Pinyin:
- Zhuyin: ㄓㄠ ㄙㄢ ㄇㄨˋ ㄙˋ
- Tongyong Pinyin: jhaosanmùsìh
- Wade–Giles: chao1-san1-mu4-ssŭ4
- Yale: jāu-sān-mù-sz̀
- Gwoyeu Romatzyh: jausanmuhsyh
- Palladius: чжаосаньмусы (čžaosanʹmusy)
- Sinological IPA (key): /ʈ͡ʂɑʊ̯⁵⁵ sän⁵⁵ mu⁵¹⁻⁵³ sz̩⁵¹/
- (Standard Chinese)+
- Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
- Jyutping: ziu1 saam1 mou6 sei3
- Yale: jīu sāam mouh sei
- Cantonese Pinyin: dziu1 saam1 mou6 sei3
- Guangdong Romanization: jiu1 sam1 mou6 séi3
- Sinological IPA (key): /t͡siːu̯⁵⁵ saːm⁵⁵ mou̯²² sei̯³³/
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
Idiom
(deprecated template usage) 朝三暮四
- to change something that is already settled upon; to blow hot and cold
References
Japanese
Etymology
Kanji in this term | |||
---|---|---|---|
朝 | 三 | 暮 | 四 |
ちょう Grade: 2 |
さん Grade: 1 |
ぼ Grade: 6 |
し Grade: 1 |
on'yomi |
Derived from, and now a false friend of Chinese 朝三暮四 (zhāosānmùsì).
Noun
朝三暮四 • (chōsanboshi)
- a focus on cosmetic differences between two objects without realizing that they are substantively identical
- deceiving a person
Categories:
- Chinese chengyu from Zhuangzi
- Chinese lemmas
- Mandarin lemmas
- Cantonese lemmas
- Chinese idioms
- Mandarin idioms
- Cantonese idioms
- Chinese chengyu
- Mandarin chengyu
- Cantonese chengyu
- Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Chinese terms spelled with 朝
- Chinese terms spelled with 三
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- Chinese terms spelled with 四
- Chinese entries with language name categories using raw markup
- Advanced Mandarin
- Japanese terms spelled with 朝 read as ちょう
- Japanese terms spelled with 三 read as さん
- Japanese terms spelled with 暮 read as ぼ
- Japanese terms spelled with 四 read as し
- Japanese terms read with on'yomi
- Japanese terms borrowed from Chinese
- Japanese terms derived from Chinese
- Japanese lemmas
- Japanese nouns
- Japanese terms spelled with second grade kanji
- Japanese terms spelled with first grade kanji
- Japanese terms spelled with sixth grade kanji
- Japanese terms with 4 kanji