📖 Meaning
To shift one's own misfortune or blame onto another person. The idiom describes the act of making someone else bear the consequences of one's own mistakes or troubles. It carries a clearly negative connotation of evading responsibility.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) by Sima Qian of the Han dynasty, in the chapter on the Hereditary House of Zhao. During the Warring States period, the state of Han, facing pressure from the powerful state of Qin, deliberately chose not to submit to Qin in the hope of redirecting the threat onto its neighbor Zhao. The historian records that Han's refusal to join Qin was an attempt to 'shift the disaster onto Zhao.' Over time, the expression came to denote any act of deflecting blame or harm onto others.
💡 Example Usage
出了问题不能嫁祸于人，要勇于承担自己的责任。
When problems arise, you must not shift the blame onto others; you should bravely take responsibility yourself.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 嫁祸于人
- Pinyin: jià huò yú rén
- Literal Translation: 嫁, transfer, 祸, disaster, 于, to, 人, others
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4