"Blow Hot and Cold" 朝三暮四

The idiom ‘blow hot and cold’ refers to changing one's mind easily, as in Peter's been blowing hot and cold about taking an overseas holiday. This expression comes from Aesop's fable (c. 570 BC) about a man eating with a satyr (ancient god who roamed the woods and mountains) on a winter day. At first the man blew on his hands to warm them and then blew on his soup to cool it. The satyr thereupon renounced the man's friendship because he blew hot and cold out of the same mouth. The expression was repeated by many writers, most often signifying a person who could not be relied on.

In Chinese, the proverb Zhao San Mu Si (literally means Three at Dawn and Four at Dusk), has the same meaning. The proverb comes from a story told by Lie Zi who lived in the Warring States period (476 – 221 BC).

Once upon a time, in the state of Song, there lived a man who kept monkeys. He was very fond of monkeys and kept a large number of them. He could understand the monkeys and they could also understand him. He reduced the amount of food for his own family in order to satisfy the monkey‘s demands. After a while his family did not have enough to eat, so he wanted to limit the food for the monkeys.

But he was afraid that the monkeys would not submit to him. Before doing that he played a trick on them： “If I give you three chestnuts in the morning and four in the evening, would that be enough?” he asked the monkeys. All the monkeys rose up in a fury. After a while, he said, “If I give you four chestnuts in the morning and three in the evening, would that be enough?” All the monkeys lay on the floor, very happy with this proposal.

Originally this proverb was used to mean a fool can be tricked by changing the appearance but now it has evolved into meaning unreliable person who is inconsistent or changes his mind easily.