Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #2 Lord Ye Loves Dragon (葉公好龍)
Just like the idea, but fear the real
Story: Lord Ye's Love of the Dragon (葉公好龍)
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This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.
Dragon is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology. Lord Ye was well-known for his fondness for dragons. He worshipped the dragons so much that he decorated his mansion with dragon drawings and carvings everywhere, from living rooms to bedrooms, from the front gate to the garden. He even named his children dragons.
By learning this, the real dragon in Heaven was very happy and decided to visit Lord Ye. The dragon arrived with thunder and violent storms. When Lord Ye saw a giant dragon staring at him with red eyes and its tail swinging horizontally in front of him, he was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
So it turned out that what Ye Gong liked was painted and carved fake dragons but not real ones.
The meaning
I didn't get this idiom (of course, I understood the story) when I first learned it, until many years later when I…
