鱼目混珠
鱼目混珠 (yú mù hùn zhū) literally means “fish eyes as pearls” and expresses “passing fakes as genuine”. This idiom is used when describing situations involving life philosophy.
Also searched as: yu mu hun zhu, yu mu hun zhu,鱼目混珠 meaning, 鱼目混珠 in english
Passing fakes as genuine
Pronunciation: yú mù hùn zhū Literal meaning: Fish eyes as pearls
Origin & Usage
Fish eyes (鱼目) mixed in with (混) pearls (珠). A dried fish eye is round, pale and superficially convincing, which is the entire basis of the comparison — the fraud works on inspection at a distance and fails on any closer test. What the phrase adds beyond simple counterfeiting is the mixing: the fakes are distributed among genuine articles so that the batch as a whole passes. Goods, credentials and people all qualify.
Examples
English: "The seller tried to deceive customers by selling fake antiques as genuine artifacts"
Chinese: 卖家试图通过将假古董当作真品出售来欺骗顾客
Related Chinese Idioms
Similar idioms about life philosophy
鱼龙混杂
yú lóng hùn zá
Good and bad people mixed together
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混水摸鱼
hún shuǐ mō yú
Exploit chaos
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如鱼得水
rú yú dé shuǐ
In perfect element
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缘木求鱼
yuán mù qiú yú
Using completely wrong method for a task
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沉鱼落雁
chén yú luò yàn
Beauty so stunning it affects natural world
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目不暇给
mù bù xiá jǐ
Too much to take in
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一叶障目
yī yè zhàng mù
Miss big picture
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目不转睛
mù bù zhuǎn jīng
Focus intently
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does 鱼目混珠 mean in English?
鱼目混珠 (yú mù hùn zhū) literally translates to “Fish eyes as pearls” and is used to express “Passing fakes as genuine”. This Chinese idiom belongs to the Life Philosophy category.
When is 鱼目混珠 used?
Situation: The seller tried to deceive customers by selling fake antiques as genuine artifacts
What is the pinyin for 鱼目混珠?
The pinyin pronunciation for 鱼目混珠 is “yú mù hùn zhū”.