📖 Meaning
Literally "frost falls in the sixth month (midsummer)." It is a classical metaphor for a grave injustice or wrongful conviction, based on the legend that heaven sends unseasonable frost in response to a terrible wrong. The phrase is used to condemn unjust persecution or a court's wrongful judgment.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Tang dynasty scholar Zhang Yue's inscription "Yu Zhen" (Inscription on Prison), which quotes the line "When a commoner nurses deep grievance, frost falls in the sixth month." The underlying legend traces back to Zou Yan of the Warring States period, who was falsely accused and imprisoned; it was said that heaven responded to his unjust suffering by sending frost in midsummer. This motif was later famously invoked in the Yuan dynasty playwright Guan Hanqing's tragedy "The Injustice to Dou E," where the heroine's wrongful execution causes snow to fall in summer.
💡 Example Usage
这桩冤案令百姓痛心疾首，真有飞霜六月之感。
This wrongful conviction so grieved the common people that it felt as though frost might fall in midsummer.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 飞霜六月
- Pinyin: fēi shuāng liù yuè
- Literal Translation: fly, frost, sixth, month
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4