📖 Meaning
Literally meaning the heart is broken and the liver is cut open, this idiom describes being in extreme grief and anguish. It conveys a pain so overwhelming that it feels as though one's vital organs have been shattered and torn apart. It is typically used to portray the deepest sorrow, such as the loss of a loved one.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Jin dynasty poet Pan Yue, who wrote it in a elegy titled 'Lament for the Orphan Girl Zelan, on Behalf of Ren Zixian's Wife.' The piece was composed to mourn a young girl who had died, giving voice to the survivors' unbearable sorrow. In the text, Pan Yue writes that the grieving woman's ears still hold the child's lingering voice and her eyes still picture the child's face, so that when she lies down at night, her grief breaks her heart and tears her liver apart. The vivid imagery made the expression an enduring symbol of devastating loss.
💡 Example Usage
听闻独女意外身故，老妇人当场哭得摧心剖肝，几度昏厥过去。
Upon hearing that her only daughter had died in an accident, the old woman wept with heartbroken agony and fainted several times.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 摧心剖肝
- Pinyin: cuī xīn pōu gān
- Literal Translation: break, heart, cut open, liver
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4