Idiom Explanation:
Describes a person who speaks arrogantly and rudely, and also describes the person who speaks rudely.
Pronunciation:
出言不逊
chū yán bú xùn
Origin:
西晋·陈寿《三国志·魏书·张郃传》：“图惭，又更谗郃曰：‘郃快军败，出言不逊。’郃惧，乃归太祖。”
Story:
During the Three Kingdoms period, there was a man named Zhang He (hé), who was earlier a war general under Yuan Shao. Once, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao fought at Guandu (northeast of Zhongmou, Henan Province). Yuan Shao sent his general Chun Yu Qiong to supervise the transport of grain and grass, which was hoarded in the bird’s nest. When Cao Cao learned of this, he sent his troops to the bird’s nest to attack Chun Yu Qiong.
Zhang He advised Yuan Shao, “Although Cao Cao’s soldiers were fewer than our army, they were all elite soldiers, in case Chun Yu Qiong could not defend the bird’s nest, it would be bad, I think we should send heavy troops to support the bird’s nest.” Guo Tu, another great general of Yuan Shao, said, “What Zhang He said is not a good plan. I think we should attack Cao Cao’s main camp first, so that Cao Cao will definitely go back to rescue, and the siege of Bird’s Nest will be broken without any problem.”
Zhang He listened to Guo Tu’s opinion and said unconvincingly, “Cao Cao’s camp is easy to defend and hard to attack, it is impossible to take it soon, if Chun Yu Qiong is captured and we are cut off from food and grass, we will lose for sure.” Yuan Shao felt that his troops were far superior to Cao Cao’s, so he adopted Guo Tu’s military strategy and sent only small troops to support Chun Yu Qiong, while attacking Cao Cao’s main camp with heavy troops, which was heavily defended by Cao Cao and Yuan Shao would find it difficult to break Cao Cao’s main camp for a while.
Cao Cao’s attack on the bird’s nest was successful and he used fire to burn Yuan Shao’s grain and grass cantoned in the bird’s nest. This shaken Yuan Shao’s army and defeated himself without fighting. Knowing that this defeat was caused by his own improper strategy, Guo Tu resorted to the evil deed and falsely accused Yuan Shao, saying, “Zhang He was surprisingly gloating about having lost the battle and spoke arrogantly and rudely.”
When Zhang He found out about it, he was afraid that Yuan Shao would be angry with him, so he defected to Cao Cao. He said to Cao Cao, “Guo Tu said to Yuan Shao that I gloated and spoke rudely, so I can only come to you.” Cao Cao said, “It is as right for you to come and join me as it is for Han Xin to join Liu Bang.” Later, Zhang He became a powerful war general under Cao Cao and made a lot of battle achievements.
Similar Idioms:
- 出口伤人
