📖 Meaning
Refers to genuine and fake, or superior and inferior, things being mixed together. The image evokes valuable mink fur placed alongside common dog fur, suggesting a jumble of the precious and the worthless. It is used when authentic and counterfeit, or excellent and shoddy, items are intermingled and hard to distinguish.
📜 Origin Story
From the Tang dynasty scholar Cui Zhuo's preface 'Narrating the Stone Pillar' (叙石幢事). Cui Zhuo had admired and practiced the calligraphy of Yan Zhenqing (honored as Lu Gong, 鲁公) since childhood. Grieved that Yan's remarkable calligraphic traces had fallen into ruin, he ordered the damaged portions of a stone pillar restored and the missing parts supplemented with later imitations. He acknowledged that although the authentic originals and the forged additions were vastly different in quality—like mink and dog intermingled—at least Yan Zhenqing's legacy could once again be viewed and passed down to future generations.
💡 Example Usage
古玩市场里真品赝品貂狗相属，没有行家眼光很难分辨。
In the antique market, genuine pieces and forgeries are mingled together like mink and dog; without an expert eye, they are hard to tell apart.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 貂狗相属
- Pinyin: diāo gǒu xiāng shǔ
- Literal Translation: mink, dog, mutually, follow
- Category: Quality
- Characters: 4