📖 Meaning
A bird frightened by a bow and arrow. It describes a person who has been badly frightened before and now panics at the slightest sound or movement. The idiom conveys a state of lingering fear left by past trauma.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the Warring States period text Zhan Guo Ce (楚策四), where a wounded bird was so terrified by an earlier arrow that it fell at the mere twang of an empty bowstring. The Jin Shu (晋书·苻生载记) quotes the line '伤弓之鸟，落于虚发' — a bird hurt by a bow drops even from an arrowless shot. The image is of a wild goose struck by an arrow above, which then collapses in fright when another bow is merely drawn below.
💡 Example Usage
敌军刚吃过败仗，如今个个如伤弓之鸟，听到风声便四散逃命。
Fresh from their defeat, the enemy soldiers were like birds frightened by a bow, scattering in panic at the mere rustle of the wind.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 伤弓之鸟
- Pinyin: shāng gōng zhī niǎo
- Literal Translation: wounded, bow, of, bird
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4