📖 Meaning
The offender's crimes are so heinous that even executing them cannot fully atone for the wrongdoing. It describes guilt so extreme that death itself is insufficient punishment. Used to condemn atrocious acts and demand the severest penalty.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the preface to the 'Biographies of Knights-Errant' (游侠传序) in the Book of Han (汉书), written by Ban Gu of the Eastern Han dynasty. The text discusses Guo Jie (郭解), a commoner of the Han era who privately usurped the power over life and death, judging and killing others according to his own will. Ban Gu remarks that for a mere commoner to seize such authority, 'his crime was already beyond what execution could atone for' (其罪已不容诛矣). The saying later became a fixed idiom for condemning unforgivable evil.
💡 Example Usage
这个恶霸残害百姓无数，罪不容诛，理应处以极刑。
This local tyrant has harmed countless common people; his crimes are so great that even execution cannot atone for them, and he deserves the death penalty.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 罪不容诛
- Pinyin: zuì bù róng zhū
- Literal Translation: crime, not, allow, execution
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4