neither an ass nor a horse(fēi lǘ fēi mǎ)

neither an ass nor a horse

Not a donkey, not a horse, Chinese idiom, Pinyin is f ē IL ǘ f ē im ǎ, which means whether a donkey is not a horse. Metaphor is neither fish nor fowl, nothing like it. It comes from the book of the Han Dynasty, biography of the western regions.

The origin of Idioms

In the book of the Han Dynasty, the second biography of the western regions: "a donkey is not a donkey, a horse is not a horse, if it is king kuizi, it is also called a mule."

Analysis of Idioms

[synonym] neither fish nor fowl, neither three nor four and [antonym] serious

Idiom usage

It is often used with "neither fish nor fowl". Qu Yi, a patrol envoy and commander-in-chief, announced to China and foreign countries that it was neither donkey nor horse. He was extremely shocked. The sixty ninth chapter of the popular romance of the Republic of China

Idiom story

During the Han Dynasty, there was a king of kuci in the western regions, Jiang Bin, who visited the Han Dynasty many times during Emperor Xuan's reign. He liked the culture of the Han Dynasty very much. After returning home, he vigorously promoted the culture of the Han Dynasty, which was quite different from the traditional customs of the western regions. People thought that his specious things were mules crossed by donkeys and horses.

Chinese PinYin : fēi lǘ fēi mǎ