📖 Meaning
To carry grievances and harbor a sense of injustice in one's heart. It describes someone who has been wronged but has no way to seek redress. The phrase emphasizes the burden of unredressed wrongs suffered silently.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase originates from a memorial submitted by Shen Yue (沈约) during the Southern Dynasties, Liang period, titled '上言宜校勘谱籍' (Memorial Urging the Verification of Genealogical Registers). Shen Yue warned that the widespread desire to alter household and lineage registers led to numerous errors and injustices, leaving countless people with unredressed grievances. He estimated that those harboring such wrongs numbered in the hundreds of thousands, far beyond what could be individually addressed.
💡 Example Usage
他被错判入狱多年，怀冤抱屈却无人倾听。
He was wrongly imprisoned for years, harboring grievances that no one would listen to.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 怀冤抱屈
- Pinyin: huái yuān bào qū
- Literal Translation: harbor, injustice, embrace, grievance
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4