📖 Meaning
A disaster that befalls someone due to being caught up in someone else's conflict or circumstances. The idiom likens the sufferer to fish in a pond that are harmed when the surrounding environment is disturbed. It emphasizes being innocently implicated in troubles not of one's own making.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the Ming dynasty story collection 'Erke Paian Jingqi' (二刻拍案惊奇), compiled by Ling Mengchu (凌濛初) during the late Ming era. In Volume 24, a Daoist warns that within three years the region will fall into war and turmoil, advising the listener to move to a safer place to avoid the 'disaster of the pond fish.' The expression alludes to the classical metaphor '城门失火，殃及池鱼' (when the city gate catches fire, the fish in the nearby pond suffer), where innocent bystanders are harmed by events originating elsewhere.
💡 Example Usage
他因同事贪污案被调查，受池鱼之祸而被免职。
He was implicated in the investigation of a colleague's embezzlement case and, suffering collateral fallout, was dismissed from his post.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 池鱼之祸
- Pinyin: chí yú zhī huò
- Literal Translation: pond, fish, of, disaster
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4