📖 Meaning
A fabricated crime; a charge without substance or evidence. Similar to '莫须有之罪', it refers to accusations that are invented rather than based on facts, used to frame or persecute someone unjustly.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom draws upon the concept of charging someone with a crime that has no tangible evidence or form. It echoes the spirit of '莫须有之罪' (a crime that 'perhaps exists'), famously associated with the Song dynasty persecution of the general Yue Fei by the minister Qin Hui. While no single classical text is definitively cited as its origin, it belongs to the broader Chinese tradition of criticizing tyrannical or corrupt use of power to fabricate charges against political enemies.
💡 Example Usage
他因无形之罪而蒙受不白之冤，令人唏嘘。
He suffered an unjust grievance due to a fabricated crime, which is deeply lamentable.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 无形之罪
- Pinyin: wú xíng zhī zuì
- Literal Translation: no, form, of, crime
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4