Chinese Idioms -- yì rén dé dào, jī quǎn shēng tiān

一人得道，鸡犬升天 (yì rén dé dào, jī quǎn shēng tiān)

When a man attains the Dao, even his pets ascend to heaven---when a man gets to the top, all his friends and relations rise to high positions.

道 Dào means enlightenment and immortality.

Liu An (179-122BC), the grandson of Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, was a man of letters and a Taoist thinker. He organized thousands of Taoist alchemists to compile a book advocating the idea that everything in the universe originates from Dào 道. He was also fond of alchemy and dreamed of becoming an immortal. He plotted a rebellion but the conspiracy was brought to light and he committed suicide.

As Liu An had a great influence on Taoists, after he died, people created a legend about him.

The legend says, one day Liu An met eight old men and, in a solemn ceremony, formally became their pupil. He began to learn from them how to make elixir of life and cultivate himself for the attainment of divinity.

After some time, Liu An succeeded in refining divinity pills. But before he had time to swallow them, someone told the emperor about his scheme. The emperor sent men to arrest him. Liu An hurriedly asked his eight old teachers for help. They told him that he could swallow the divinity pills and become a celestial being. With the permission of his teachers, Liu An and all his friends and relations ate some of the pills and immediately became immortals and ascended to heaven.
His dogs and chicken ate the remaining pills left in the courtyard and also flew into the sky, clucking and barking, making quite a scene.

From that legend comes the idiom 一人得道，鸡犬升天 (yì rén dé dào, jī quǎn shēng tiān). In Chinese culture, the word for pets, especially "dog", has a bad implication. Comparing someone to a pet, a dog in particular, shows we hold him in contempt. So, we use the idiom to mock those of great influence whose friends and relations make easy and rapid progress in their careers just because of such a relationship.