📖 Meaning
Describes someone whose accumulated evil deeds have reached their absolute limit and whose time for punishment has come. It is equivalent to the idiom 恶贯满盈, both invoking the image of a string fully threaded with coins to convey that wickedness has filled to the brim. It is typically used to condemn a tyrant, criminal, or corrupt regime whose downfall is now inevitable.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the Tang dynasty text 《金石萃编》, specifically in Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's written response (批答) to a memorial submitted by officials including Pei Yaoqing. Xuanzong used it to denounce a rebellious border tribe (小蕃背诞) that had repeatedly defied imperial authority, declaring that their accumulation of evil had finally reached its limit. The imagery draws from ancient belief that sins, like coins strung on a cord (贯), would eventually fill the entire string—once full, Heaven's punishment must fall. Over the centuries the expression became a standard condemnation for wrongdoers who had exhausted all tolerance.
💡 Example Usage
这个贪官恶贯已盈，迟早会受到法律的严惩。
This corrupt official's crimes have reached their limit; sooner or later he will face the full severity of the law.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 恶贯已盈
- Pinyin: è guàn yǐ yíng
- Literal Translation: evil, string-together, already, full
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4