







喘月吴牛 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to be excessively wary or apprehensive due to a past unpleasant experience; to be startled by a false alarm or a perceived threat that resembles a past hardship”. Literally, “Wu ox panting at the moon”.
Emperor Wu of Jin highly esteemed Man Fen, an official from the Ministry of Personnel, and often summoned him.
One day, knowing Man Fen was sensitive to cold, Emperor Wu intentionally placed a transparent screen near him.
Man Fen, at first hesitant to approach because he thought an empty screen wouldn't block the wind, then realized it was merely transparent.
He laughed at himself, saying, 'Your humble servant is just like the oxen from the Wu region, who pant even when they see the moon at night, fearing it is the sun.'

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Open the tool →喘月吴牛 (chuǎn yuè wú niú) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to be excessively wary or apprehensive due to a past unpleasant experience; to be startled by a false alarm or a perceived threat that resembles a past hardship”.
喘月吴牛 is pronounced chuǎn yuè wú niú in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 喘月吴牛 means “Wu ox panting at the moon”. It is used to mean “to be excessively wary or apprehensive due to a past unpleasant experience; to be startled by a false alarm or a perceived threat that resembles a past hardship”.
喘月吴牛 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
比喻因受某事物之苦而畏惧其类似者。