📖 Meaning
Describes public indignation so extreme that even the gods are angered. It conveys that the people's resentment has reached a level where both mortals and deities are wrathful, typically used to condemn tyrannical or oppressive rule.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Book of Jin (晋书), in the Biography of Kong Yu. The passage describes how heavenly punishment had already fallen upon the guilty, and before the royal army even arrived, the people turned against one another. It rhetorically asks whether this is not the result of human resentment and divine anger bringing down disaster from heaven. The phrase was used to characterize the consequences of extreme misrule that provokes fury among both the populace and the divine realm.
💡 Example Usage
昏君修建宫殿，强征百姓入役，致使朝野上下人怨神怒。
The tyrannical ruler built palaces and forcibly conscripted the people into labor, provoking such fury that resentment spread across both court and country, angering humans and gods alike.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 人怨神怒
- Pinyin: rén yuàn shén nù
- Literal Translation: people, resent, gods, anger
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4