Originally, it means that the substance remains the same, but deception is carried out by changing the name. Later, it is used to describe someone who often changes plans, is capricious, or someone who is a philanderer.
Idiom Pronunciation:
朝三暮四
zhāo sān mù sì
Origin book:
《庄子·齐物论》：“狙公赋芧，曰：‘朝三而暮四。’众狙皆怒。曰：‘然则朝四而暮三。’众狙皆悦。名实未亏而喜怒为用，亦因是也。”
Origin Story:
During the Warring States period, there was an old man who kept monkeys in the courtyard of his house. The old man gave each monkey four acorns every morning and evening. As time went by, the old man and the monkeys were able to communicate with each other.
After a few years, the old man’s economy is less and less abundant, while the number of monkeys is more and more, and happened to be the food harvest, so the old man wanted to change the daily acorn from eight to seven. So, one day, he discussed with the monkeys and said: “Now there is not enough food, from today onwards, food must be eaten sparingly. I give you three acorns every morning respectively, and four acorns at night as usual, what do you think?”
The monkeys heard the old man’s words, very angry, all think how the morning less than one? So, have begun to squeak, and also jump around, seems to be in this way to express strong dissatisfaction with the distribution of the situation. When the old man saw this, he hurriedly changed his tone and said, “Let’s do it this way, I’ll give you four in the morning and three in the evening, so that should be okay, right?” The group of monkeys listened to, think the number of acorns in the morning has become four from three, more than the evening, they changed another look, have been happy to roll up on the ground, think they have achieved victory.
Similar Idioms:
- 朝秦暮楚
- 反复无常
