Shivering All Over though Not Cold (Trembling with Fear)

Characters:

Pronunciation: Bu(4) Han(2) Er(2) Li(4)

Explanation: Said of someone experiencing an extreme horror

The Story: Yi Zong was a very cruel official during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. He had been a bandit and the reason of his becoming an official was that his sister had won the favour of the Empress Dowager.

As soon as he assumed office as Prefect of Dingxiang, he arrested more than two hundred people and sentenced all of them to death. When family members and friends of many of these people came to the prison to see them, they were arrested too and executed for the crime of "pleading for capital offences". Altogether, more than four hundred people were killed at one time. When news spread, people were terrified. They trembled with fear as if they were standing in the cold wind.

Usage Example (Pinyin): dang(1) ta(1) xiang(3) dao(4) gang(1) cai(2) he(2) ta(1) shuo(1) hua(4) de nan(2) ren(2) shi(4) ren(4) men(2) xun(2) zhao(3) de xiong(4) shou(3) shi(2), bu(4) han(2) er(2) li(4).

Usage Example (English translation): She shivered all over, though not cold, when she thought that the man talking to her a moment ago was just the killer people were searching for.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.