📖 Meaning
To interpret legal provisions with harsh, hairsplitting severity in order to trap someone into a crime. It describes the abuse of law through strained and over-strict construction, and is also written as 深文傅会.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom is rooted in the figure of the harsh legalistic official (酷吏) of the Han dynasty, most famously Zhang Tang (张汤), who served Emperor Wu of Han and was notorious for applying statutes with punishing rigor. The term 深文 appears in the Shiji's Biographies of the Harsh Officials (史记·酷吏列传), depicting men who read the law so strictly that ordinary conduct became criminal. The second half, 附会, means piecing together evidence or forcing a connection that does not naturally exist. Combined, the phrase came to mean bending the letter of the law to fabricate guilt.
💡 Example Usage
酷吏深文附会，将寻常言语曲解为谋反之罪。
The harsh official twisted the law, construing ordinary words as the crime of treason.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 深文附会
- Pinyin: shēn wén fù huì
- Literal Translation: strictly, statutes, forcibly, interpret
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4