Chinese sayings No 4

绵里藏针 (mián lǐ cáng zhēn) 

This idiom translates directly as 'a needle hidden in silk floss'. The zhēn 针 at the end is the needle (it has a metal 'radical' within the character. I'll come back in a later post to the whole idea of 'radicals' in Chinese characters)

So what would the English meaning be and when would you use it? Well, the closest is 'the iron fist in the velvet glove' or, possibly 'a wolf in sheep's clothing'. It basically indicates a hard inner purpose beneath a smooth or emollient surface. It is sometimes useful to enter a chinese word or phrase into the google image search option to see what comes up (to get a feel for the character, word or phrase). There are several military images when you search for this idiom.