📖 Meaning
To be stunned as though one were a wooden chicken. It describes a person who is frozen in shock, fear, or bewilderment, unable to react or speak. The idiom conveys a state of being completely dumbfounded.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the ancient Daoist text Zhuangzi (《庄子·达生》), written during the Warring States period by the philosopher Zhuang Zhou. In the story, a man named Ji Xingzi trains a fighting rooster for King Xuan of Zhou. After forty days of training, the rooster no longer reacts to other chickens' challenges or calls—it stands motionless like a wooden chicken. Its inner composure is so complete that other birds flee in fear without daring to fight. While the original Daoist metaphor praised complete inner stillness and spiritual mastery, later usage shifted to describe being dumbfounded from fear or astonishment.
💡 Example Usage
听到这个噩耗，他呆似木鸡地站在原地，半晌说不出话来。
Upon hearing the terrible news, he stood rooted to the spot like a wooden chicken, speechless for a long moment.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 呆似木鸡
- Pinyin: dāi sì mù jī
- Literal Translation: dumb, like, wooden, chicken
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4