Eat hard, not soft(chī yìng bù chī ruǎn)

Eat hard, not soft

To eat hard but not soft means to bully the soft and fear the hard.

Interpretation

If you don't listen to good words, you will yield to them with a tough attitude. It is used to describe a person who is strong outside but weak in the middle.

Origin

In the 17th chapter of Li Baojia's Officialdom appearance in Qing Dynasty, "Dai Dali asked him to say that the man under Hu's command should be hard rather than soft."

Chinese PinYin : chī yìng bù chī ruǎn