📖 Meaning
Not violating even an autumn hair, the finest down animals grow in autumn. It describes an army with strict discipline that takes nothing whatsoever from the common people. By extension, it can describe anyone in a position of power who is scrupulously honest and infringes not at all on others' interests.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), in the account of Xiang Yu. After Liu Bang entered the pass through the Guanzhong, he declared that he dared not come near even an autumn hair, registering the officials and commoners, sealing the treasuries and storehouses, and waiting for the general. The Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han) later recorded of the general Cen Peng that he kept his army in perfect order and violated not an autumn hair. The two sources combined cemented the idiom as the standard praise for a disciplined, upright army.
💡 Example Usage
这支军队进驻城内，秋毫不犯，百姓安居如故。
After this army entered the city, it took not so much as a hair from the people, and the citizens lived as peacefully as before.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 秋毫不犯
- Pinyin: qiū háo bù fàn
- Literal Translation: autumn, down, not, violate
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4