狐假虎威

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Chinese

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fox
vacation; fake; false
vacation; fake; false; artificial; to borrow; if; suppose
 
tiger power; might; prestige
trad. (狐假虎威)
simp. #(狐假虎威)
Literally: “the fox exploits the tiger's might”.

Etymology

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From Zhan Guo Ce, 5th – 3rd centuries BCE.

百獸:『天帝使百獸天帝不信先行百獸?』以為以為 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
百兽:『天帝使百兽天帝不信先行百兽?』以为以为 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Zhanguo Ce, circa 5th – 3rd centuries BCE
Hǔ qiú bǎishòu ér shí zhī, dé hú. Hú yuē: ‘Zǐ wú gǎn shí wǒ yě. Tiāndì shǐ wǒ cháng bǎishòu, jīn zǐ shí wǒ, shì nì tiāndì mìng yě. Zǐ yǐ wǒ wèi bùxìn, wú wèi zǐ xiānxíng, zǐ suí wǒ hòu, guān bǎishòu zhī jiàn wǒ ér gǎn bù zǒu hū?’ Hǔ yǐwèi rán, gù suì yǔ zhī xíng. Shòu jiàn zhī jiē zǒu. Hǔ bù zhī shòu wèi jǐ ér zǒu yě, yǐwèi wèi hú yě. [Pinyin]
The tiger, which hunts and eats all the animals, caught a fox. The fox said, "Don't you dare eat me. Heaven made me master of all the animals. If you eat me now, you will go against Heaven's will. If you don't believe me, I'll go in front of you and you can follow me. Observe whether the animals can see me and dare to not run away!" The tiger believed that this was true, so he followed behind the fox. Whoever saw the tiger ran away. The tiger did not know that the animals were running away because they were afraid of him, and he thought that they were afraid of the fox.

Pronunciation

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Idiom

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狐假虎威

  1. (figurative, derogatory) to use powerful connections to intimidate people

Synonyms

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Descendants

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  • Vietnamese: cáo mượn oai hùm (calque)