5 Bold Chinese Idioms With Rooster (鸡)
Explore Chinese idioms featuring the rooster (鸡), representing punctuality, courage, and vigilance.
The rooster (鸡, jī) represents punctuality, courage, and vigilance in Chinese culture. Crowing at dawn, the rooster symbolizes new beginnings and reliability.
闻鸡起舞
wén jī qǐ wǔPractice with determination
Literal: Hear the rooster, rise and drill the sword
Zu Ti and Liu Kun shared a bed as junior officials and shared an ambition to see the north recovered. The History of the Jin records that in the middle of the night Zu Ti heard (闻) a cock (鸡) crowing out of hours — an omen ordinarily counted unlucky — kicked Liu Kun awake and said this is not an evi...
Example
She practiced piano every morning before dawn to master her craft
她每天黎明前练习钢琴以精进技艺
鹤立鸡群
hè lì jī qúnStand out from crowd
Literal: Crane stands among chickens
This one comes from the Shishuo Xinyu, on Ji Shao, of whom an onlooker said that seeing him in a crowd was like seeing a crane (鹤) standing (立) among chickens (鸡群). The remark was reported to his father's friend, who replied that the onlooker had never seen the father. The distinction it names is be...
Example
Her innovative solution distinguished her from conventional thinkers
她的创新解决方案使她从传统思维者中脱颖而出
杀鸡取卵
shā jī qǔ luǎnSacrifice long-term benefits for short-term gains
Literal: Kill chicken take eggs
Killing (杀) the hen (鸡) in order to take (取) the eggs (卵) — destroying what produces in order to have what it produced. Versions of the fable appear across many traditions, and the point is the arithmetic of impatience rather than anything about poultry. What it names is not greed alone but greed th...
Example
The company maximized short-term profits by cutting essential research funding
公司通过削减必要的研究资金来实现短期利润最大化
呆若木鸡
dāi ruò mù jīCompletely stunned or dumbfounded
Literal: Dumbfounded like wooden chicken
This one comes from the Zhuangzi, on a trainer who spends forty days preparing a fighting cock. At each stage the bird is still too spirited; only at the end does it stand as if (若) carved of wood (木鸡), unmoved by any challenge, and other birds turn and flee without a fight. The wooden stillness is ...
Example
Upon hearing the unexpected news, the entire committee sat motionless in shock
听到这个意外消息，整个委员会呆若木鸡地坐着
鸡飞蛋打
jī fēi dàn dǎTo lose everything; complete failure
Literal: Chicken flies away and eggs broken
The hen (鸡) gets away (飞) and the eggs (蛋) are broken (打) in the grab. The arithmetic is the whole point: the person did not merely fail to gain, they destroyed what they already had in the course of reaching for more. That separates it from ordinary loss and from ordinary greed, and it is the stand...
Example
His reckless investment left him with nothing - the chicken flew and the eggs broke.
他冒险的投资让他鸡飞蛋打，一无所有。
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