Chinese Idiom 叶公好龙

春秋楚国沈诸梁，自称“叶公”。据说，这位叶公爱龙成癖，家里的梁、柱、门、窗上都雕着龙，墙上也画着龙。 就这样，叶公爱好龙的名声，被人们传扬开了。天上的真龙，听说人间有这么一位叶公，对它如此喜爱，很受感动，决定去叶公家对他表示谢意。         人们也许会想叶公看见真龙时会有多高兴。实际上，当叶公看见那条龙时，顿时吓得魂飞魄散，赶紧逃走。         从此人们明白了叶公爱好的其实并不是真龙，而是似龙非龙的东西而已。

梁 beam 柱 pillar 传扬 spread out 感动 moved 魂飞魄散 be scared out of one's wits

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.