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葉公好龍

简叶公好龙 · 繁葉公好龍

Mandarin · pinyin Yè Gōng hào lóng

lit. Lord Ye's passion for dragons (idiom)
fig. to pretend to be fond of sth while actually fearing it
ostensible fondness of sth one really fears

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Characters in this entry

葉: yè · leaf, petal; page of book; period
公: gōng · fair, equitable; public; duke
好: hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
龍: Look up this written character
叶: yè · to harmonize, to rhyme; to unite; (borrowed for) leaf
龙: lóng · dragon; symbolic of emperor

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1–4–2 · Ye4 Gong1 hao4 long2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

葉公好龍 · find source passages ↗ · 叶公好龙 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jip6 gung1 hou3 lung4

Cantonese word readings for 葉公好龍. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to pretend to like something which one actually dislikes or fears

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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