a chill runs down one‘s spine

不寒而栗

During the Han dynasty (漢朝， 206BC—220AD)， there was a man whose name was Yi Zong (義縱). Because of the special kindness of the mother of the emperor， Yi Zong was made a magistrate in one county.

漢武帝時，有一個人名叫義縱，因為受到太后的恩寵，做了上黨郡某縣令。

After taking up the official post ，he did very well in managing the official business. He was courageous and resolute in handling cases， and punished according to law anybody who violated the law， no matter whether he was a despotic gentleman who was rich and powerful or was one of the common people.

上任以后，公務辦得很出色，案子處理上敢作敢為，不論是有錢有勢的豪紳，還是平民， 只要犯了法，義縱秉公審辦。

When Yi Zong was transferred to be the prefect of the Nanyang Prefecture (南陽郡)， Ning Cheng (寧成)， a despotic landlord who stopped at nothing in doing evil， was living there，in order to ingratiate himself with Yi Zong， Ning Cheng pretended to be very modest and courteous every time he met Yi Zong and saw him off.

當義縱被調任到南陽郡做河內郡都尉，當地的惡霸寧成為了討好義縱，所以每次遇見義縱總是假裝成非常謙遜恭敬的樣子。

But Yi Zong had heard of the evil conducts of Ning Cheng already and， soon after he took office in Nanyang，he made investigations. It did not take much time for him to find out Ning cheng’s crimes and had him put in prison.

但是，義縱對他的惡行早有所聞，到南陽后立即展開調查，很快就查清他的罪行，把他關押起來。

Later， Emperor Wu Di (漢武帝) of the Han Dynasty appointed Yi Zong the prefect of the Dingxiang Prefecture (定襄).

后來，漢武帝又任命義縱做定襄太守。

At that time， the public order in Dingxiang was very chaotic. When he took office there， there were 200 convicts in prison who had committed felonies had no implements of punishment on them.There were also more than 200 persons who offered bribes in order to absolve those serious offenders from guilt.Yi Zong treated the matter severely. He arrested all those bribers and punished the bribers and those serious offenders already in prison severely. More than 400 convicts were executed in a day.

當時定襄的社會治安十分混亂。義縱到任以后，把押在獄中的沒有加開具的二百多名重犯，以及為重犯開脫罪責進行賄賂的二百多名門客親屬，一律嚴加追究，拘捕治罪，一天之內處死的就有四百多名。

From that day on， whenever the name of Yi Zong was mentioned，people in Dingxiang would tremble with fear --they would shiver all over though not cold.

從此以后，定襄的人一聽到義縱的名字就“不寒而栗”——天氣不冷卻渾身發(fā)抖。

英文中“不寒而栗”可以說成“a chill runs down one‘s spine”，“spine”就是“脊椎”的意思，那這個短語也就是“一股寒氣從脊椎流下”的意思啦~

平時看了恐怖片或是聽了鬼故事后，我們常會說“身后感到一陣發(fā)涼”，這樣想也就不難理解了，也就是“不寒而栗”的意思。