📖 Meaning
To be excessively suspicious, doubting everything and everyone around oneself. The phrase evokes someone who sees spirits and ghosts where none exist, constantly imagining hidden threats or malicious intentions.
📜 Origin Story
The expression was popularized by the essayist Lu Xun, who used it in the preface to his 1933 essay collection 'Zhun Fengyue Tan' (Quasi Romantic Essays). Lu Xun wrote that certain 'men of letters' who judge writing not by sight but by smell would, upon reading his work, become 'suspect gods, suspect ghosts' — reading nonexistent meanings into his words. The phrase draws on folk beliefs about unseen spirits, using them as a metaphor for imagined dangers.
💡 Example Usage
他总是疑神疑鬼，觉得同事在背后说他坏话。
He is always paranoid, suspecting that his colleagues are talking behind his back.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 疑神疑鬼
- Pinyin: yí shén yí guǐ
- Literal Translation: suspect gods, suspect ghosts
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4