The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power (狐假虎威)
- Ages 4–8
- English audio 2 min
- Mandarin audio 3 min
The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power is a classic story from Chinese Idiom Stories for Kids, for children aged 4–8. This page has the English story with a native English narration (about 2 min), plus the Chinese version with Mandarin narration (about 3 min). Free to read and listen, no sign-up.
A tiger catches a fox, and the fox claims Heaven made him king of the animals. He walks ahead, the tiger follows, and every animal runs. The idiom story 狐假虎威 in English and Chinese, with narration.
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Read The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power
Once upon a time, a big tiger lived in the hills. When he roared, the leaves shook. All the animals were afraid of him.
One day the tiger was hungry. He saw a fox sleeping under a tree. Jump! He caught the fox with his big paw.
The fox was scared, but he thought fast. "You can't eat me!" he said. "The King of Heaven sent me. I am the king of all the animals. If you eat me, the King of Heaven will be very angry."
The tiger did not believe him. "Come with me," said the fox. "I will walk in front. You walk behind me. You will see. Every animal will run away from me."
"All right," said the tiger, and he let the fox go.
The fox walked with his head up and his tail high. The tiger walked behind him.
At the river, some deer looked up and ran away. Under a big tree, a squirrel hid in a hole. In the grass, the rabbits ran off. Even the wolf and the bear ran into the woods.
"You see?" said the fox. "They are all afraid of me."
The tiger looked around. There was no one left. "Wow," he thought. "They really are afraid of the fox!"
But the tiger did not know the truth. The animals were not afraid of the fox. They were afraid of the big tiger behind him.
While the tiger was still thinking, the fox ran into the grass and went home.
The Chinese version: 狐假虎威
从前，在一座大山里，住着一只大老虎。它的额头上有个“王”字，吼一声，满山的树叶都哗啦啦地抖。山里的动物远远看见它，都赶紧躲起来。
这一天，老虎的肚子饿得咕咕叫，就出来找东西吃。它走着走着，看见一只狐狸正在树底下打盹。老虎猛地一扑，用大爪子把狐狸按在了地上。
狐狸吓了一大跳，小心脏怦怦直跳。可是它眨了眨眼睛，很快想出了一个主意。它抬起下巴，大声说：“你可不能吃我！”
老虎愣住了：“为什么不能？”狐狸说：“我是天上的天帝派下来的，天帝让我当所有动物的大王。你要是吃了我，就是不听天帝的话，天帝可饶不了你！”
老虎眯起眼睛，有点不相信。狐狸又说：“你不信？那好，我在前面走，你跟在我后面。你看看，动物们见了我，有哪一个敢不逃跑的？”老虎想了想：“好，我倒要看看。”它松开了爪子。
狐狸挺起胸脯，翘着尾巴，一步一步走在前头。老虎瞪着一双大眼睛，紧紧跟在它的后面。
它们走到小河边，几只梅花鹿正在喝水，一抬头，转身就跑。走到大树下，小松鼠“嗖”地钻进了树洞。走到草地上，一群野兔一眨眼就没了影儿。连狼和熊看见了，也赶紧掉头钻进了树林。
狐狸回过头，得意地说：“怎么样？我没骗你吧？”老虎看看四周，空荡荡的，一只动物也不剩了。它心里想：“原来大家这么怕狐狸呀！”老虎不知道，动物们怕的根本不是狐狸，而是狐狸身后那只大老虎，也就是它自己。
趁着老虎还在发愣，狐狸一转身，钻进草丛，一溜烟跑回了自己的洞里。
The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power (狐假虎威): the moral of the story
The fox scared everyone off with the tiger’s strength, not his own. Real respect comes from what you can do yourself, and like the tiger, we should think twice before believing big talk.
- What does The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power mean?
- Literally “the fox borrows the tiger’s might”: 狐 (hú) fox, 假 (jiǎ) here means “to borrow,” 虎 (hǔ) tiger, 威 (wēi) power that makes others afraid. It describes someone who uses a powerful person’s position to frighten or push others around, the way a bully might boast about a big brother or a boss.
- Example sentence
- Ever since his big brother became class monitor, Xiaoming keeps telling everyone, “My brother will deal with you.” His classmates just roll their eyes: “狐假虎威 (hú jiǎ hǔ wēi). He’s the fox walking in front of the tiger.”
The original Chinese text of The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power
虎求百兽而食之，得狐。狐曰：“子无敢食我也。天帝使我长百兽，今子食我，是逆天帝命也。子以我为不信，吾为子先行，子随我后，观百兽之见我而敢不走乎？”虎以为然，故遂与之行。兽见之皆走。虎不知兽畏己而走也，以为畏狐也。
— 《战国策·楚策一》
Our translation
The tiger hunted all kinds of animals and ate them. It caught a fox. The fox said, “You dare not eat me. The King of Heaven has made me leader of all the animals. If you eat me now, you will be going against his command. If you don’t believe me, I will walk ahead of you and you follow behind. See whether any animal that sees me dares not run away.” The tiger thought this was right, so it went along with the fox. The animals saw them and all ran away. The tiger did not realize that they ran because they were afraid of it. It thought they were afraid of the fox.
— Zhanguo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States), “Strategies of Chu, Part One”; compiled by Liu Xiang, 1st century BC
Chinese words in The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power
Play the Chinese narration and listen for these words. The pinyin shows the tones.
狐假虎威hú jiǎ hǔ wēi
the fox borrows the tiger's might
老虎lǎo hǔ
tiger
狐狸hú li
fox
天帝tiān dì
the King of Heaven
动物dòng wù
animal
大王dà wáng
king
松鼠sōng shǔ
squirrel
逃跑táo pǎo
run away
Bedtime storytelling tips
- Give the fox a sharp, showing-off voice and the tiger a deep, gruff one, so your child always knows who is talking.
- As each animal runs away, pause and let your child act it out: the deer dashing off, the squirrel diving into its hole.
- Afterward, play fox and tiger: your child walks in front as the fox, you follow as the tiger, and as you pass the toys on the bed, ask who they are really afraid of.
Things to talk about afterwards
- What did the fox say to make the tiger let him go?
- Why did the animals run when the fox came by? Who were they really afraid of?
- If you were the tiger, how could you find out the fox was tricking you?
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The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power (狐假虎威): common questions
- What does the Chinese idiom 狐假虎威 mean?
- 狐假虎威 (hú jiǎ hǔ wēi) means “the fox borrows the tiger’s might.” 假 here means “to borrow,” not “fake.” It describes someone who uses another person’s power to scare or bully others.
- What is the moral of The Fox Borrows the Tiger’s Power?
- Scaring people with someone else’s strength is not the same as being strong yourself, and sooner or later it shows. The story also warns us not to be taken in by clever talk the way the tiger was.
- Where does 狐假虎威 come from?
- It comes from the Zhanguo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States), “Strategies of Chu, Part One.” The Chu minister Jiang Yi told it to King Xuan of Chu: the northern states were not afraid of the minister Zhao Xixu himself, but of the king’s army behind him, just as the animals feared the tiger behind the fox.
- What does the original classical Chinese text say?
- In short: a tiger looking for animals to eat caught a fox. The fox said the King of Heaven had made him leader of all the animals, so eating him would go against Heaven’s command, and told the tiger to follow him and see whether any animal dared not run. The tiger followed, the animals all ran, and the tiger never realized they were afraid of him, not the fox. Our full translation is on this page.
Source and how we retold it
From the Zhanguo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States), “Strategies of Chu, Part One,” compiled by Liu Xiang in the Western Han dynasty; the original is in the public domain. In the original, the Chu minister Jiang Yi (江乙, also written 江一) tells it to King Xuan of Chu as a comparison: the northern states are not really afraid of the minister Zhao Xixu, but of the king’s army behind him, just as the animals feared the tiger behind the fox. We tell only the fox and tiger story, expanded for children, and added the ending where the fox slips away while the tiger is still puzzling. The original stops at the tiger believing the animals feared the fox.
The narration on this page is AI-generated: the English is read by 英伦绅士 and the Chinese by 温柔妈妈. The audio files are labeled as AI-generated.
If you liked The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Power (狐假虎威), there are more stories in Chinese Idiom Stories for Kids. You can also read this one to your child in your own voice.
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