Draw dragons and carve swans(huà lóng kè hú)

Draw dragons and carve swans

The Chinese idiom, Hu à L ó NGK è h ú in pinyin, means to describe a long journey without success. It is the same as "portraying tigers and depicting Swans". From "send Wu Zhen to the northwest".

The origin of Idioms

The poem "send Wu Zhen to the northwest" written by Sun Hua of the Tang Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty: "who is the scholar of dongjiannanjin, who paints dragons and carves swans, who has a half empty name."

Idioms and allusions

At the beginning of Fan Ye's biography of Ma Yuan in the book of the later Han Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty, his brothers Yan and dun were both fond of ridicule, but they despised Xiake. Before the aid, he wrote a admonition: "I want you to hear people's mistakes, just like hearing the name of your parents. You can hear them with your ears, but you can't speak them with your mouth. It's a great evil for me to discuss people's merits and demerits. I'd rather die than hear about my descendants. You and Cao know how evil I am, so when you reply, Shi Jin will tie the knot and apply for the precepts of your parents, so that you and Cao will never forget. Long BOGAO is honest and honest, Zhou Shen is speechless, modest and thrifty, honest and powerful. My love is very important. I hope you and Cao will follow suit. Du Jiliang is a gallant man. He likes righteousness, worries about people, and enjoys people's happiness. He is clear and has nothing to lose. His father's death has brought him many guests. After several counties, I love him so much that I don't want you to be effective. As a result, he is still a person of imperial edict. The so-called "draw a tiger but not a dog" is the same. As far as Ji Liang is concerned, the county will always get off the train and gnash its teeth. The prefecture thinks that I am always cold hearted, so I don't want my children and grandchildren to follow suit. 」

Idiom usage

Chapter three and seven of journey to the West: "the strange one is so powerful that he becomes the same as you My apprentice has the means and will never dare to fight lightly. If we are caught by many officials, saying that we deceive the country and destroy the country, and asking about a crime of great rebellion, and being trapped in the city, is it not to draw a tiger and carve a swan? " Liu Zhiji's Shitong Liujia in Tang Dynasty said: "although Junmao's Sui Shu wanted to describe the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and the Charter of Yu Xia, it was like Confucius' family language and Linchuan's Shishuo, so it can be said that the painting of a tiger is not the opposite of a dog." Pu Songling's strange tales from a lonely studio Rouge in the Qing Dynasty: "I have promised you my body, but I'm afraid I'll turn a tiger into a dog, which will lead to slander." Liu Bannong read the biography of flowers on the sea: "if you don't have the intelligence to dispatch it and the strength to carry it, you'll just draw a tiger like a dog." Chapter 11 of the lamp on the wrong side of the road: "this prime minister is very clever. He is a man who can draw a tiger at the sight of a cat." Xiaoyi said with a smile, "Duanfu is not very clever. He is afraid to draw tiger like dogs."

Chinese PinYin : huà lóng kè hú