To pass as competent by hiding in a group
The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.
King Xuan of Qi liked to hear three hundred yu pipes at once, so a man named Nanguo who could not play a note joined the ensemble and drew a salary for years. The next king preferred to hear the players one at a time. Nanguo ran.
Source: 《韩非子》Han Feizi, 3rd century BC
The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.
Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.
滥竽充数 is pronounced làn yú chōng shù and means to pass as competent by hiding in a group. Literally it says "a bad yu-player making up the numbers" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《韩非子》Han Feizi, 3rd century BC. King Xuan of Qi liked to hear three hundred yu pipes at once, so a man named Nanguo who could not play a note joined the ensemble and drew a salary for years. The next king preferred to hear the players one at a time. Nanguo ran.
làn yú chōng shù. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.
滥 (làn) Flood (excessive), 充 (chōng) Fill (act as - sufficient), 数 (shù) Count (list - rank); Number (amount). These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the intermediate band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 滥竽充数 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
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