When he is with his master, the dog is likely to feel mighty and powerful – just because the master is mighty and powerful. As the Chinese put it: gŏu zhàng rén shì, “a dog trusts his masters might”.

Gŏu is “dog” in Chinese. Zhàng means “trust”, rén is “man” and shì stands for “power, might”. This proverb talks about dogs and men, but actually it also applies to situations concerning men and men.

It happens often that, in the presence of mighty and influential men, our self-confidence increases significantly. As if we could share a bit of that sweet feeling of success and power just by being in their presence. And the more convinced we are about being on the winner's side, the more and the louder we dare to speak up....like the dog who dares to bark loudly as long as the master is backing him up!

There is also another version of this proverb: gŏu zhàng guān shì, meaning “dog trusts official's power”. Guān stands for a government official or a person who is in a position to make decisions and to rule over others. This version of the proverb is cited especially when some nasty little people sneak into circles of power and use the officials to make their personal own agenda happen. Corruption, that is.

In China, the dog is often considered to be a loyal friend, but on the other hand, also to be an archetype of a villain, the scum of society. Exactly like in the western world. There are many Chinese proverbs underlining both these roles, and considerably a lot of swear words involving dogs.

In order to stay neutral, we could easily turn this above saying upside down into: rén zhàng gŏu shì, “a man trusts his dog's power”. Even if you have a tiny little canine friend at home, you do feel more safe and secure than being all alone, don't you?