📖 Meaning
To behead someone and publicly display their severed head as a warning to others. This was an ancient Chinese form of capital punishment designed to humiliate the condemned and intimidate the populace. It conveys extreme public punishment carried out by authority.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom stems from ancient Chinese execution practices dating back to at least the Qin and Han dynasties. The character 枭 originally refers to the owl, a bird regarded in antiquity as cruel for allegedly devouring its own parents, and was metaphorically extended to mean decapitation with the head hung on a pole. The term 枭首 thus denotes severing the head and suspending it publicly, while 示众 means to display before the masses. Historical records across multiple dynasties document this punishment for grave offenses such as treason and rebellion.
💡 Example Usage
他因叛国罪被枭首示众，以警示世人。
He was beheaded and his head publicly displayed for the crime of treason, as a warning to all.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 枭首示众
- Pinyin: xiāo shǒu shì zhòng
- Literal Translation: behead head, display public
- Category: Power
- Characters: 4