叶公好龙

In the Spring and Autumn Period, 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, pillars, 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 was very happy to see a real dragon. But, actually, at very 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.