📖 Meaning
Walking on frost, one anticipates that the season of hard ice is approaching. The idiom is a metaphor for recognizing the early signs of a situation and staying vigilant about how it will develop. It urges people to perceive problems at their inception and act before they grow serious.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Book of Changes (易经), specifically the first line (初六) of the Kun hexagram (坤卦), which reads: '履霜，坚冰至' ('Tread on frost; hard ice will come'). The accompanying Xiang commentary explains that treading on frost and ice means the yin force is beginning to congeal, and if left to follow its course it will eventually form hard ice. The Song dynasty Neo-Confucian scholar Cheng Yi (程颐) elaborated on this line in his Yichuan Yizhuan (伊川易传), the work cited in the example from the Er Cheng Quanshu. The idiom thus teaches that from small early signs one should foresee and guard against their full development.
💡 Example Usage
见他已有贪腐苗头，应有履霜坚冰之警，及早制止。
Seeing the early signs of his corruption, one should be as alert as one who steps on frost and expects hard ice, and put a stop to it before it grows.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 履霜坚冰
- Pinyin: lǚ shuāng jiān bīng
- Literal Translation: tread on, frost, hard, ice
- Category: Wisdom
- Characters: 4