成語(2)：騎虎難下。 Chinese Proverb: He Who Rides a Tiger is Afraid to Dismount.

It is said that the English idiom "Ride a Tiger" comes from a Chinese proverb "He who rides (騎) a tiger (虎) is afraid (難) to dismount (下). " John Ayto in his Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms explains this Chinese proverb very well. It says that "ride a tiger" denotes "take a responsibility or embark a course of action which subsequently cannot be safely abandoned." Why cannot be safely abandoned? Because the responsibility or the course of action has now changed into a 'tiger'--uncontrollable, doesn't listen to you, hard to tell to stop. There was no 'tiger' in the first place, but now you have it. Chinese-speaking people say "now you 騎虎難下了," while English-speaking ones say " Now you are riding a tiger." Pronounce it : 騎(chiˊ)虎(huˇ)難(nanˊ)下(shiaˋ)。By the way, the Chinese word「難」isn't 'afraid,' , but ' difficult, hard.' This Chinese proverb has said nothing about someone 'afraid' of doing something. It says that the dilemma--riding a tiger (騎虎)--is difficult (難)or hard (難) to resolve. Look, the Chinese character ' tiger':