风声鹤唳

Pronunciation: fēng shēng hè lì Literal meaning: Wind sound crane call

Origin & Usage

After the rout at the Fei River, Fu Jian's enormous army broke and ran, and the History of the Jin says that the sound (声) of the wind (风) and the cry (唳) of a crane (鹤) were enough to convince the fleeing men that the Jin army was on them. They slept in the open and starved on the road, and most of them never got home. The phrase describes a state in which the alarm no longer requires a cause — every ordinary noise is read as the thing feared — and it shares its origin with 草木皆兵.

Examples

English: "After the security breach, the company became extremely cautious about every small alert"

Chinese: 在安全漏洞事件后，公司对每个小警报都格外警惕