Idioms by theme
Chinese idioms about animals
A lot of chengyu are tiny animal stories. A farmer waits by a stump for another hare, a fox walks in front of a tiger, a man adds feet to a snake and loses his wine. This page lists the 81 animal idioms in the Daily Chengyu collection, grouped by animal.
Each idiom links to its own page with pinyin, a character-by-character breakdown, the origin story with sources, and an example sentence you can listen to.
Eleven of the twelve zodiac animals appear here. The pig is the one missing from this collection.
Good ones to learn first
守株待兔 (shǒu zhū dài tù) comes from Han Feizi. A farmer in Song sees a hare run into a tree stump and die, so he stops farming and waits by the stump for another one. Today it describes waiting for luck instead of working.
画蛇添足 (huà shé tiān zú) is from the Zhanguo Ce. Whoever draws a snake first gets the wine. The fastest man starts adding feet, someone else finishes, says snakes have no feet, and drinks it. People use it for ruining something by doing too much.
狐假虎威 (hú jiǎ hǔ wēi), also from the Zhanguo Ce, has a fox telling a tiger to follow it. The other animals run away, and the tiger thinks they're afraid of the fox. It's said about someone who throws around borrowed power.
塞翁失马 (sài wēng shī mǎ) is the Huainanzi story of an old man near the frontier who loses a horse. It comes back with better horses, his son breaks a leg riding one, and the injury keeps the son out of the fighting. It means a loss can turn out to be a good thing.
Dragons and phoenixes (9)
Dragons usually stand for something strong or impressive, from hidden talent (卧虎藏龙) to lively handwriting (龙飞凤舞).
Tigers (5)
The tiger is the dangerous animal in these idioms. Three of them are about helping or bargaining with someone harmful.
Horses and donkeys (19)
Horses show up in idioms about travel, war, speed, and age. This is the biggest group in the collection.
Oxen (2)
Sheep (3)
Chickens (7)
Chickens stand for ordinary, everyday things, which is why a crane among them stands out.
Dogs (3)
Rabbits (2)
Snakes (3)
Rats (2)
Foxes, wolves, deer, and leopards (5)
Fish (6)
Birds (11)
Frogs and insects (4)
Learn them one a day
The Daily Chengyu app for iPhone shows one idiom each day with its pinyin, meaning, and a character-by-character breakdown.
Search the full library