neither fish nor fowl

neither fish nor fowl

Chinese idiom, Pinyin is B ù L ú Nb ù L è I, which means neither this kind nor that kind. It describes people's improper dress or unreasonable speech. It's from the therapy stove soup - Xuying.

Analysis of Idioms

[synonym] no three, no four, no monk, no vulgar, no donkey, no horse

The origin of Idioms

Wu Bing, Ming Dynasty, wrote in the treatment of furnace soup, Xu Ying: "people in the eyes are neither fish nor fowl, and people in the well are neither clever nor clever."

Idiom usage

The metaphor is nonstandard and formless. In Han Feizi, it is hard to say: "if you are respectful and generous, if you finish it carefully, you will find that you think you are digging but not ethical." Chen Qiyou: Lun, Lei also. "No Lun, that is, today's language is neither fish nor fowl." Chapter 67 of a dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin in Qing Dynasty. See what he said is neither fish nor fowl, and it's not convenient to ignore him. Chapter 31 of officialdom: I'm afraid things are not good when I think of Zhao Yuan's behavior and his words Biography of heroes and heroines by Wen Kang of Qing Dynasty.

Idioms and allusions

Once, Xue pan brought two big boxes of things from Jiangnan for his mother, Aunt Xue, and sister Xue Baochai. One box is made of silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk. Aunt Xue took out the things in the box, sorted them out one by one, and asked someone to give them to Aunt Jia and Mrs. Wang. Baochai went back to her room and went over the items one by one. Apart from keeping them for her own use, she coordinated them one by one and distributed them to Jia Huan's sisters. Lin Daiyu's is different from others, and it is twice thicker. After one by one, send people to all places. When Aunt Zhao saw that Baochai had given Jia Huan such a gift, she liked it very much and thought, "no wonder people say that baowench is good, she can be a good person and is very generous. Now it looks like, sure enough! How much can her brother bring? She went door-to-door and did not miss a single spot, nor did she reveal who was thin and who was thick. She even thought of my bad luck. If Lin Daiyu doesn't look straight at our mother, how can she give us something? " Aunt Zhao thought and fiddled with those things. All of a sudden, she remembered that Baochai was a relative of Mrs. Wang. Why didn't she go to Mrs. Wang to sell her? So she took her things and went into Mrs. Wang's room. She stood beside and said with a smile, "this is the gift given by Miss Bao to brother Huan. It's difficult for such a young person as Miss Bao to be so considerate. She's really a girl from a rich family. How generous she is, why can't she be respected? No wonder the old lady and her wife praise and love her all the time. I don't dare to put it away. I'll show it to my wife. She likes it, too. " When Mrs. Wang heard this, she knew aunt Zhao's intention. Seeing that what she said was not like this or that, but it was inconvenient to ignore her, she said, "just take it and give it to brother Huan." Aunt Zhao was very happy when she came, but she was angry and didn't dare to show it, so she had to walk away.