New Preface·Sundry Work by Liu Xiang in the Han Dynasty ：
故事出自汉代刘向的《新序·杂事五》，大意是说:
In the Spring and Autumn Period, there lived in Chu a person named Chu Zhuliang，who addressed himself as “Lord Ye”.
春秋楚国沈诸梁，自称“叶公”。
It's said that this Lord Ye was very fond of dragons.
据说，这位叶公爱龙成癖，
The walls had dragons painted on them. The beams and pillars and the doors and the windows were all carved with them.
家里的梁、柱、门、窗上都雕着龙，墙上也画着龙。
As a result, his love for dragons was spread out.
就这样，叶公爱好龙的名声，被人们传扬开了。
When the real dragon in heaven heard of this Lord Ye, he was deeply moved.
天上的真龙，听说人间有这么一位叶公，对它如此言爱，很受感动，
He decided to visit Lord Ye to thank him.
决定去叶公家对他表示谢意。
You might think Lord Ye would have been very happy to see a real dragon.
人们也许会想叶公看见真龙时会有多高兴。
But, in fact, at the sight of the creature, he was scared out of his wits and ran away as fast as he could.
实际上.当叶公看见那条龙吋，顿时吓得魂飞魄散.赶紧逃走。
From then on, people knew that Lord Ye only loved pictures or carvings which look like dragons, not the real thing.
从此人们明白了叶公爱好的其实并不是真龙，而是似龙非龙的东西而已。
Figuratively it has been a satire on inconsistency of deeds and words.
因此，后人就用“叶公好龙”一词来形容口是心非、表里不一的人。
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