葉公好龍

春秋楚國沈諸梁，自稱「葉公」。 據說，這位葉公愛龍成癖，家裡的梁、柱、門、窗上都雕著龍，牆上也畫著龍。 就這樣，葉公愛好龍的名聲，被人們傳揚開了。天上的真龍，聽說人間有這麼一位葉公，對它如此喜愛，很受感動，決定去葉公家對他表示謝意。

人們也許會想葉公看見真龍時會有多高興。實際上，當葉公看見那條龍時，頓時嚇得魂飛魄散，趕緊逃走。

從此人們明白了葉公愛好的其實並不是真龍，而是似龍非龍的東西而已。

Professed Love of What One Really Fears

In the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC), there lived in Chu a person named Chu Zhuliang, who addressed himself as "Lord Ye". It's said that this Lord Ye was very fond of dragons. The walls had dragons painted on them. The beams and pillars and the doors and the windows were all carved with them. As a result, his love for dragons was spread out. When the real dragon in heaven heard of this Lord Ye, he was deeply moved. He decided to visit Lord Ye to thank him.

You might think Lord Ye would have been very happy to see a real dragon. But, in fact, at the sight of the creature, he was scared out of his wits and ran away as fast as he could.

From then on, people knew that Lord Ye only loved pictures or carvings which look like dragons, not the real thing.