📖 Meaning
To bravely speak truth to power and request the execution of corrupt officials. The idiom evokes the courage to risk one's life by offending the ruler in order to strike down powerful evildoers. It praises officials who dare to remonstrate bluntly for the sake of justice.
📜 Origin Story
During the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, Zhu Yun, magistrate of Huaili, submitted a memorial stating that court ministers could neither correct the ruler above nor benefit the people below, all holding sinecures without doing real work. He requested the imperial executioner's sword from the Shangfang workshop to behead the sycophantic Marquis of Anchang, Zhang Yu, who was the Emperor's own teacher, so as to warn the rest. Emperor Cheng flew into a rage, declaring that a minor official slandering his superiors and insulting his teacher at court deserved death without pardon. The story is recorded in the Book of Han, Biography of Zhu Yun.
💡 Example Usage
他一生志在批鳞请剑，纵遭贬谪亦不改其忠鲠之志。
He devoted his life to daringly remonstrate with power and strike down corrupt officials; even in exile he never abandoned his steadfast loyalty.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 批鳞请剑
- Pinyin: pī lín qǐng jiàn
- Literal Translation: stroke the dragon's reverse scales, request the imperial sword
- Category: Determination
- Characters: 4