東郭先生

Chinese

		surname	one who was born earlier; mister; sir one who was born earlier; mister; sir; gentleman
trad. (東郭先生)		東郭	先生
simp. (东郭先生)		东郭	先生

Etymology

From Ming Dynasty fairy tale The Wolf of Zhongshan, in which the protagonist, a Mohist scholar Mr. Dongguo saved a wolf from being hunted, yet ultimately had himself requested to be eaten by the wolf.

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): Dōngguō xiānshēng

(Zhuyin): ㄉㄨㄥㄍㄨㄛㄒㄧㄢㄕㄥ
Cantonese (Jyutping): dung¹ gwok³ sin¹ saang¹

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: Dōngguō xiānshēng → Dōngguō xiānsheng (toneless final syllable variant)
  - Zhuyin: ㄉㄨㄥㄍㄨㄛㄒㄧㄢㄕㄥ → ㄉㄨㄥㄍㄨㄛㄒㄧㄢ ˙ㄕㄥ (toneless final syllable variant)
  - Tongyong Pinyin: Dongguo sianshe̊ng
  - Wade–Giles: Tung¹-kuo¹ hsien¹-shêng⁵
  - Yale: Dūng-gwō syān-sheng
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Dongguo shian.sheng
  - Palladius: Дунго сяньшэн (Dungo sjanʹšɛn)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʊŋ⁵⁵ ku̯ɔ⁵⁵ ɕi̯ɛn⁵⁵ ʂɤŋ⁵⁵/ → /tʊŋ⁵⁵ ku̯ɔ⁵⁵ ɕi̯ɛn⁵⁵ ʂɤŋ²/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: dung¹ gwok³ sin¹ saang¹
  - Yale: dūng gwok sīn sāang
  - Cantonese Pinyin: dung¹ gwok⁸ sin¹ saang¹
  - Guangdong Romanization: dung¹ guog³ xin¹ sang¹
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʊŋ⁵⁵ kʷɔːk̚³ siːn⁵⁵ saːŋ⁵⁵/

Noun

東郭先生

naive person who gets into trouble through being soft-hearted to evil people; person who helps someone without reckoning their ulterior intention, which ultimately backfires

Related terms

中山狼 (Zhōngshānláng)