Chinese idiom · 成语
狐假虎威
Meaning
To use another’s authority to intimidate; to borrow power.
Character by character
Origin and story
FableIn the Chu Ce I (楚策一) section of Zhanguo Ce (戰國策), an adviser answers the king of Chu’s question about why other states fear his minister Zhao Xixu. He tells of a tiger that catches a fox. The fox claims that Heaven appointed it ruler of the animals and challenges the tiger to follow it and see how they react.
As the fox walks ahead and the tiger follows, the other animals flee. The tiger mistakes their fear of itself for fear of the fox. The adviser explains that other states likewise fear the king’s military power behind the minister, not the minister alone. A parallel fable is also preserved as a fragment attributed to Yin Wenzi (尹文子), quoted in Taiping Yulan (太平御覽), volume 494. The idiom now criticizes using someone else’s authority to bully or intimidate.
In everyday life
他总拿经理的名义命令同事，其实经理根本没授权，这就是狐假虎威。
He keeps ordering colleagues around in the manager’s name, though the manager never authorized him—that’s bullying with borrowed authority.
The phrase is disapproving; it is not a neutral description of properly delegated responsibility.