To insist on an obvious lie to see who dares object
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.
The eunuch Zhao Gao presented a deer to the young Second Emperor of Qin and called it a horse. The emperor laughed; the courtiers did not. Those who said "that is a deer" were noted down, and quietly destroyed.
Source: 《史记》Records of the Grand Historian, c. 94 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.
指鹿为马 is pronounced zhǐ lù wéi mǎ and means to insist on an obvious lie to see who dares object. Literally it says "point at a deer and call it a horse" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《史记》Records of the Grand Historian, c. 94 BC. The eunuch Zhao Gao presented a deer to the young Second Emperor of Qin and called it a horse. The emperor laughed; the courtiers did not. Those who said "that is a deer" were noted down, and quietly destroyed.
zhǐ lù wéi mǎ. 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.
指 (zhǐ) Indicate (point out - refer to - finger), 鹿 (lù) Deer, 为 (wéi) For (in order to - because of); Act as (to be), 马 (mǎ) Horse. 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 指鹿为马 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.
All idioms