Chinese Idiom: Lord Ye Loved Dragons
"叶公好龙 (yè gōng hào lóng)" 'Lord Ye Loved Dragons' is a Chinese idiom meaning that someone loves a certain thing outwardly, but not sincerely.
从前有个人叫叶公他很喜欢龙。他的衣服上绣着龙，酒杯 上刻着龙，墙上画着龙。
天上的真龙知道了叶公这么喜欢龙， 便下降到他 家。龙在窗口张望，把尾巴伸进了大厅。但是叶公却被真龙吓得脸色苍白，转身就跑。
看来， 叶公并不是真的喜欢龙呀！他所喜欢的只是那些像龙的东西。
Once upon a time, there was a man named Lord Ye who claimed to love dragons very much. Pictures of dragons were embroidered on his clothes, carved on his cup and painted on his walls.
An actual dragon in heaven knew that Lord Ye loved dragons very much, so it descended to his house. The dragon looked through the window and pushed its tail into the hall.But Lord Ye's face turned pale out of fear for the real dragon. He fled away.
Apparently Lord Ye didn't actually love dragons with sincerity. What he loved were just things that looked like dragons.
叶 yè / (surname) / leaf / page /
公 gōng / just / honorable (designation) / public / common /
好 hǎo / good / well /
hào / be fond of /
龙 lóng / dragon / imperial / Long (a surname) /