辽东豕

遼東豕

Liáodōng shǐ

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

HSK 7-9

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 chéng le Liáodōng shǐ.

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

HSK 7-9

他对西方文化一知半解，难免有辽东豕之讥。

Tā duì xīfāng wénhuà yìzhībànjiě, nánmiǎn yǒu Liáodōng shǐ 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