Idiom Explanation:
Like sitting on a felt with pins in it, describe the mind as restless and fidgety.
Pronunciation:
如坐针毡
rú zuò zhēn zhān
Origin:
唐·房玄龄等《晋书·杜锡传》：累迁太子中舍人。性亮直忠烈，屡谏愍怀太子，言辞恳切，太子患之。后置针着锡常所坐处毡中，刺之流血。
Story:
This idiom originates from Luoyang, the capital of the Western Jin Dynasty, and tells the story of a miserable prince with a miserable fate and his subjects.
Sima Yu was the grandson of Sima Yan, the founding emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, and the son of the second emperor Sima Ji, born in 278 AD. According to the Book of Jin, he was very intelligent when he was young and was loved by Emperor Wu. One evening when he was five years old, the palace caught fire and Sima Yan climbed up the building to look out. The young Sima Yu did not understand and asked why, but he answered: “The evening is sudden, so it is better to be prepared for it, and it is not advisable to make the light to see the king. It turned out that it was for the safety of grandfather. Thereafter, Sima Yan praised his grandson many times in public as being quite like his ancestor Sima Yi, and stressed, “This child should prosper my family.”
In 290 A.D., Sima Yan died and Sima Ji reigned as Emperor Hui of Jin. Emperor Hui of Jin was faint and incompetent, and the fierce and cruel Empress Jia Nanfeng took the opportunity to interfere in the imperial government. Since Sima Yu, who was made the crown prince, was not born to Jia Nanfeng, Jia Nanfeng regarded Sima Yu as a thorn in his side. On the one hand, she separated the crown prince from his biological mother Xie Jiu, and on the other hand, she secretly made the eunuchs around the crown prince relax their discipline and let him waste his studies. When Sima Yu became the crown prince, he was just 13 years old, and without the restraint and guidance of adults, he was like a wild horse that was out of control and acted recklessly.
At that time, a man named Du Xi, who was very straightforward, advised Sima Yu to stay away from villains and to cultivate his virtue and goodness after he became the crown prince’s sheriff. The prince, who was already used to indulgence, did not listen to the advice, but resented Du Xi.
Once, Sima Yu deliberately put some needles in the felt cushion where Du Xi used to sit. Du Xi didn’t notice it, and his buttocks were stabbed with blood and pain. The next day, Sima Yu deliberately asked Du Xi, “What happened to you yesterday?” Du Xi had difficulty in speaking, so he replied, “I was drunk yesterday and didn’t know what I had done.” Sima Yu then asked, “You like to blame others, but why did you do something wrong yourself?” The idiom of “sitting on pins and needles” is derived from this story.
In 299 A.D., Jia Nanfeng summoned his cronies Pan Yue and others to fabricate a document and frame Sima Yu, and the court abolished Sima Yu’s position as prince on the charge of conspiracy, sent him out of the palace, and dispatched him to Xuchang. In 300 A.D., Jia Nanfeng ordered the eunuch Sun Gu to bring the poison to Xuchang and forced Sima Yu to take it. When Sima Yu resolutely refused to obey, Sun Gu followed him while he was going to the toilet and “killed him with a pestle and mortar”. In this year, Sima Yu died at the age of 23.
Similar Idioms:
- 芒刺在背
