辽东豕

遼東豕

liáodōngshǐ

idiom

Meanings

1 the Liaodong pig
2 someone who makes a big deal of the ordinary out of ignorance
3 the rube who mistakes the common for the rare

Characters

Liao (region, modern Liaoning)

Examples

别拿这种常识当新发现，免得成了辽东豕。

Bié ná zhè zhǒng chángshí dàng xīn fāxiàn, miǎnde chéngle liáodōngshǐ.

Don't trumpet common knowledge as a new discovery — you'll look like the Liaodong pig.

他对西方文化一知半解，难免有辽东豕之讥。

Tā duì xīfāng wénhuà yīzhībànjiě, nánmiǎn yǒu liáodōngshǐ zhī jī.

His shallow grasp of Western culture exposes him to the old Liaodong-pig mockery.

Tips

history

From 《后汉书·朱浮传》: a Liaodong farmer finds a white-headed piglet and proudly travels west to present it to the emperor — only to discover that in Hedong all pigs are white-headed. The term has meant 'provincial ignorance dressed up as discovery' ever since.

register

Literary and dated. You'll meet it in essays and classical allusions, rarely in speech.

Stroke Order

辽 Liáo

东 dōng

豕 shǐ