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>위록지마(謂鹿止馬) wii rok ji ma To point at a deer and call it a horse. Used for suck ups who says agrees to things that are clearly not right.

Adding a little bit of context to this: This seems to be the same origin as the Japanese word baka: 馬鹿 which means stupid and is the combination of the word Horse（馬） and deer (鹿). It has a quite funny background story[1] from ancient China:

>Zhao Gao was contemplating treason but was afraid the other officials would not heed his commands, so he decided to test them first. He brought a deer and presented it to the Second Emperor but called it a horse. The Second Emperor laughed and said, "Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?" Then the emperor questioned those around him. Some remained silent, while some, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Zhao Gao, said it was a horse, and others said it was a deer. Zhao Gao secretly arranged for all those who said it was a deer to be brought before the law. Thereafter the officials were all terrified of Zhao Gao.

The English wiki is a bit kind to him, because in the original one it wasn't "put before the law" but killed/executed. So the "fool/stupid" person is not the one that called a deer a horse, but the ones that didn't

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baka_(Japanese_word)

"Well, that explains a lot." Cheers!

This is the origin of the Japanese insult “baka” as well.

Here's another interesting one that gamers might recognize, JP-from-CN:

> 竜頭蛇尾 (ryuutou dabi) "Dragon head, snake tail"

Blizzard's Overwatch team decided that would make a cool family motto for a ninja clan, so it features prominently in the game's launch cinematic and some in-game areas. But they apparently never looked up the meaning, which is basically "starting strong but ending weak", or just "anticlimactic".

Huh, sounds a little like how Overwatch unfolded! Strong start, a lot of enthusiasm, now everybody's pretty much over it and the competitive scene is dying (?)

> To point at a deer and call it a horse.

When indigenous Mexicans first met Spaniards, they described their horses (which are not native to the New World, so they had never seen before) as “a sort of giant deer”.

It’s totally off-topic here but I always thought that was interesting.

There were actually horses in the new world, it's just that the natives hunted them all to extinction well before the Europeans arrived. Likewise with most other "mega fuana" in North America. There's also theories that climate changes played a role in addition to over exploitation.

True, but to be clear, they had gone extinct thousands of years before the Spanish brought them back, so the natives in the early 16th century had no way of knowing about them.

>Sharing some Korean Yojijukugos (originating from China)

This is neither here nor there, but you have me in stitches for using Japanese to refer to Chinese sayings to describe Korean (sub)culture.

Haha, I did think about using the Korean word instead but just decided to go with the flow. East Asian culture is so intertwined, it's a pity we all have such a love-hate relationship with each other.

> 위록지마(謂鹿止馬) wii rok ji ma > To point at a deer and call it a horse.

Very common South Indian proverb. Of course, our version goes -

To point at a donkey and call it a horse.

I guess because donkeys are way more common than deer in South India. I'm curious about the etymology. Did it really originate in China ? If so, how come its so commonly used in South India ? The Chinese monks Faxian[1] and Xuanzang[2] visited India during the 5th/7th AD...the proverb came along with them ?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faxian [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanzang

The phrase comes from Sima Qian's "The Records of the Grand Historian" written in 94BCE. Zhao Gao was a eunuch and hid the first Emperor's death and schemed to have the rightful heir killed. Zhao installed a puppet and tested everyone's loyalty by declaring a stag a horse and dared anyone to question him.

https://cesnur.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/tjoc_6_4_5_che...

Ma Su is also relevant because Zhuge Liang was repeatedly warned that Ma Su had more head knowledge than ability so should not receive a major command. Zhuge Liang's emotions and admiration cost him not only the campaign, but a dear friend.

> To point at a deer and call it a horse. Used for suck ups who says agrees to things that are clearly not right.

Love this. A good English equivalent is “the emperor’s new clothes.”

References to the emperor’s new clothes seem to be focused on the moment when the lie everyone is going along with finally gets revealed, though. I think the English equivalent is more like “brown nosing.”

Brown nosing need not involve lying - you can be obsequious without agreeing to an obvious falsehood.

> To behead Ma Su (name) while crying. [...]

I wonder how much further ahead of western cultures, eastern asian cultures would have been if they didn't kill (or commit suicide) every time someone made a mistake.