10 Chinese Idioms About Danger & Risk
Thrilling Chinese idioms about danger, risk-taking, and navigating perilous situations with wisdom.
Life is full of risks, and Chinese idioms offer wisdom for navigating dangerous situations. These expressions teach when to be cautious, when to be bold, and how to survive against the odds.
狐假虎威
hú jiǎ hǔ wēiBorrow authority to intimidate
Literal: Fox uses tiger's power
A tiger caught a fox, and the fox said heaven had made it lord of the beasts, so eating it would be defying heaven — walk behind me and see whether anything dares stand its ground. The tiger followed, the animals fled, and the tiger concluded the fox had been telling the truth. The Strategies of the...
Example
The junior manager kept dropping the CEO's name to get his way
这个初级经理总是搬出CEO的名字来达到目的
风声鹤唳
fēng shēng hè lìOverly fearful and suspicious
Literal: Wind sound crane call
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...
Example
After the security breach, the company became extremely cautious about every small alert
在安全漏洞事件后，公司对每个小警报都格外警惕
胸有成竹
xiōng yǒu chéng zhúHave clear plan beforehand
Literal: Bamboo ready in heart
This descends from Su Shi's account of the painter Wen Tong of the Northern Song, who held that to paint bamboo (竹) one must first have the finished bamboo complete within the breast (胸有成竹) — and then work fast, before the image fades. The idiom is about the completeness of the mental picture, not a...
Example
The architect had a complete vision of the building before drawing the first line
建筑师在画第一笔之前就已经对建筑有了完整的构想
画蛇添足
huà shé tiān zúRuin by adding extras
Literal: Draw snake add feet
The Strategies of the Warring States tells of retainers given a single flagon of wine and agreeing that whoever finished drawing a snake first should drink it. The quickest man, seeing the others still working, began adding feet (添足) to his snake (画蛇) — at which the second man finished, took the fla...
Example
The excessive explanations only confused the simple concept
过多的解释反而让简单的概念变得混乱
三人成虎
sān rén chéng hǔRepeated lie becomes truth
Literal: Three people make tiger real
Pang Cong, about to leave Wei escorting a hostage prince to Handan, asked his king whether he would believe a man who reported a tiger (虎) in the marketplace. No. Two men? He would wonder. Three (三) men (人)? The king said he would believe it. There is no tiger in the marketplace, Pang Cong said, and...
Example
The untrue rumor about a product defect spread on social media until customers started believing it without evidence
关于产品缺陷的不实传言在社交媒体上传播，直到顾客开始在没有证据的情况下相信它
杯弓蛇影
bēi gōng shé yǐngNeedlessly suspicious
Literal: Bow in cup snake shadow
Ying Shao's Comprehensive Meaning of Customs tells of a guest who saw a snake (蛇) in the wine he had been handed, drank it out of politeness, and went home ill for months. His host, working out where the man had been sitting, found a painted bow (弓) on the wall and its reflection (影) lying in the cu...
Example
The team's excessive caution about minor changes paralyzed decision-making
团队对小变化的过度警惕导致决策瘫痪
临危不惧
lín wēi bù jùCourage under pressure
Literal: Face danger without fear
Meeting (临) danger (危) without (不) fear (惧). The formulation descends from the Zhuangzi's praise of the man who faces great peril without alarm, and it hardened into a standard term of commendation in later histories and biographies. What it denotes is composure under threat rather than absence of t...
Example
The firefighter rushed into the burning building without hesitation
消防员毫不犹豫地冲进了燃烧的大楼
杞人忧天
qǐ rén yōu tiānWorry needlessly about impossible disasters
Literal: Qi person worries sky
The Liezi tells of a man (人) of Qi (杞) who feared (忧) the sky (天) would fall and the earth give way, and stopped eating and sleeping over it. A friend explained that the sky is only accumulated air and the earth accumulated solid matter, and both men were relieved — though Liezi then gives a third v...
Example
His constant fears about remote dangers prevented him from enjoying life
他对遥远危险的持续担忧使他无法享受生活
草木皆兵
cǎo mù jiē bīngExtreme paranoia sees threats everywhere
Literal: Grass trees all soldiers
At the Battle of the Fei River in 383 CE, Fu Jian of the Former Qin led an enormous army against the far smaller forces of the Eastern Jin. Surveying the Jin lines from a city wall, he mistook the grass (草) and trees (木) on distant Bagong Mountain for massed soldiers (兵), taking the entire hillside ...
Example
After the security breach, the paranoid CEO suspected every employee of potential espionage
在安全漏洞事件后，这位偏执的首席执行官怀疑每位员工都可能从事间谍活动
争先恐后
zhēng xiān kǒng hòuRush eagerly to be first, not last
Literal: Compete first fear last
The competitive atmosphere of the Han Dynasty imperial court gave birth to this phrase describing the twin drives of striving to be first (争先) while fearing to be last (恐后). Court historians noted how this combination of ambition and anxiety drove official behavior. Tang Dynasty observers saw the sa...
Example
Investors rushed to purchase shares of the promising new technology company
投资者争先恐后地购买这家有前途的新科技公司的股票
Quick Reference
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