【每週成語】
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成語：葉公好龍(YE GONG HAO LONG); One is not sure what he really likes; one doesn’t like what he pretends to like; Ye Gong likes dragon—professed loves what one really fears.
出處：新序雜事。
釋義：比喻為浮誇無實的偽君子。
故事：春秋時代，一個名楚褚梁者，自稱“葉公”。這位葉公非常喜歡龍。他房子的牆壁上都畫著龍；樑柱門窗皆雕刻著龍。甚至衣服、被褥、蚊帳都繡上龍。當人走進他的屋子，好像置身龍的世界。
結果，葉公好龍的名氣不脛而走，被天上的真龍知道了，非常感動，想親自下來看個究竟，並向他致謝。當真龍降落在葉公的院子裡時，它將頭從窗戶伸進屋內，你可能會想到葉公看到真龍一定會很高興。但實際上當他看到真龍的一瞬間，嚇得魂飛魄散急忙逃跑。從那時起，人們知道葉公好龍只是喜歡圖畫或雕刻的龍，並非真龍。
這則寓言是孔子的弟子子張訪問魯哀公時引用的。他聽說魯哀公喜歡結交讀書人，所以就不遠千里去拜訪魯哀公，想在那裡待下來。可是過了七天魯哀公還沒有召見他。他不得不離開並留下這個寓言故事以諷刺並教訓魯哀公。
用法：一個副排長平時說他如何大膽善戰，常常大罵小兵膽小如鼠。可是在1949年福建白沙鎮發射重機槍與共軍交火時，看到排長受傷流血，叫他接手持槍抵抗時，他卻嚇得屁死尿流逃之夭夭。真是一個“葉公好龍”的傢伙。
故事英譯：During the Era of Spring and Autumn, there was a person named Chu Zhu Liang, who addressed himself as “Lord Ye”. It’s said that this Lord Ye was very fond of dragon. The walls of his home had dragon painted in them while the beams, pillars, doors, and windows were all carved with the creatures. And even on his clothes, quilt, mosquito net, dragon pictures were embroidered. When people entered his house, they felt as if to walk into a dragon world.
As a result, word of his love for dragons spread widely. The fame of his love for dragons was heard by King Dragon--the really dragon in heaven—he was deeply moved and would like to go down to the house of Lord Ye for detecting the detail situation and wanted to thank him. When the really dragon landed down the yard of Lord ye and stretched his head into the room through the window, you might think that Mr. Ye was very happy to see a real dragon. But actually at the very sight of the creature, he was scared out of his wits and ran away as fast as he could. From then on people knew that Lord Ye only loved picture or carvings that looked like dragons, but not the real thing.
This prophecy comes from the book “New Orders of Chores”. When Zi Zhang, a disciple of Confucius, went to visit Duke Ai of Lu State he induced this prophecy, because he heard that Duke Ai of Lu liked to access to scholars, so he went for thousand miles and waited for visiting Duke Ai of Lu and wanted to be allowed by Duke Ai let him stay there. However, seven days passed, Duke Ai hadn’t summoned him. He could not but left, and left this prophecy “Lord Ye likes dragon” for satirizing and teaching Duke Ai of Lu.
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