Level 2 · Elementary · Chinese fable
狐假虎威
The fox and the tiger
A hungry tiger catches a fox, and the little fox has only a moment to think of a way out…
📖 The story behind the idiom 狐假虎威
🔊 This story is read by your device’s own Mandarin voice.
🔑 Key words in this story (22)
- 狐狸 húli fox
- 老虎 lǎohǔ tiger
- 怕 pà to be afraid (of)
- 动物 dòngwù An animal — any living creature that can move about by itself, as opposed to a plant.
- 大王 dàwáng king
- 一边 yībiān 一边…一边…: doing two things at the same time
- 狐假虎威 hújiǎhǔwēi To bully or impress people by leaning on someone else's power, like the fox in the fable that scared the other animals by walking in front of a tiger.
- 森林 sēnlín forest
- 饿 è hungry
- 抓住 zhuāzhù to catch, to seize
- 马上 mǎshàng at once, right away
- 相信 xiāngxìn to believe
- 别的 biéde other
- 其实 qíshí in fact; the truth is
- 心里 xīnli in one's heart, inwardly
- 办法 bànfǎ way, plan, trick
- 后来 hòulái later, afterwards
- 人们 rénmen people
- 用 yòng to use
- 借 jiè to borrow
- 别人 biéren other people
- 力量 lìliang power, strength
Tap any word for its meaning.
森林
A tiger lived in a forest.
它
It was very big, and everyone was afraid of it.
有
One day it was hungry, and it went out to look for something to eat.
它
It soon caught a fox.
它
Just as it was about to eat, the fox said, “Wait! You can't eat me! Do you know who I am?”
“我
“I'm the king here! Everyone runs away the moment they see me.”
老虎
The tiger laughed. “You? A king? You're so small!”
狐狸
The fox said, “You don't believe me? Then let's take a walk together. Stay behind me and see whether everyone runs away when they see me.”
老虎
The tiger thought it over and said, “All right, let's go!”
狐狸
The fox walked in front, and the tiger followed behind.
路上，
On the way, they saw lots of animals.
鸟
The birds saw them and flew off at once.
别的
The other animals saw them too, and they all ran off fast.
一会儿，
Soon there wasn't a single animal left on the path.
狐狸
The fox said, “You saw that, didn't you? Everyone is afraid of me! I was right, wasn't I?”
老虎
The tiger thought, “It's telling the truth!”
它
It didn't know that what everyone was really afraid of was the tiger itself.
它
It let the fox go.
狐狸
As the fox walked away, it laughed to itself: “What a good plan!”
后来，
Later, people began to use “the fox borrowing the tiger's might” to describe someone who borrows another person's power to make everyone afraid of him.