📖 Meaning
A rhetorical question meaning 'to whom should the blame be attributed?' It is used to question who bears responsibility for a fault or failure. The phrase implies that responsibility must be assigned but it is unclear who is at fault.
📜 Origin Story
This is a classical rhetorical expression without a single identifiable literary source. It reflects the traditional Chinese concern with assigning moral and legal responsibility. The construction pairs 欲 (about to / intending to) with the interrogative 谁 (whom) and the compound 归罪 (to impute guilt), forming a pointed question about accountability. Such phrasing was common in legal and ethical discourse throughout imperial China.
💡 Example Usage
出了如此大祸，欲谁归罪？
With such a great disaster having occurred, to whom should the blame be attributed?
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 欲谁归罪
- Pinyin: yu shui gui zhui
- Literal Translation: about to, whom, impute, guilt
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4