📖 Meaning
To act with wanton cruelty and run rampant, doing evil as one pleases. It describes tyrannical behavior where someone abuses power to oppress and harm others without restraint.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom traces to Ming dynasty writer Feng Menglong's 'Zhinang Quanji' (Complete Collection of Wisdom). The passage describes Bi Zhen, a eunuch who was an ally of the rebel prince Zhu Chenhao. Arriving from Jiangxi with great pomp, Bi Zhen was escorted by over five hundred armed guards. He and his men committed rampant atrocities, leaving everyone in constant fear for their safety. The phrase came to denote anyone who behaves tyrannically and wreaks havoc unchecked.
💡 Example Usage
这伙恶霸在乡里肆虐横行，百姓苦不堪言。
These gangsters ran rampant in the countryside, making the common people suffer miserably.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 肆虐横行
- Pinyin: sì nüè héng xíng
- Literal Translation: recklessly, cruel, unruly, act
- Category: Power
- Characters: 4