To make yourself ill over an imagined threat
The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.
How our dictionary glosses it
Very suspicious (mistaking reflection of a bow in a cup for a snake) — full dictionary entry.
A guest of Yue Guang saw a snake writhing in his wine, drank it out of politeness and went home sick for months. Yue Guang worked out that a painted bow on the wall had been reflected in the cup, sat his friend in the same seat and showed him the snake again. The man recovered on the spot.
Source: 《晋书》Book of Jin, 7th century AD
The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.
Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.
杯弓蛇影 is pronounced bēi gōng shé yǐng and means to make yourself ill over an imagined threat. Literally it says "a bow in the cup, a snake in the shadow" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《晋书》Book of Jin, 7th century AD. A guest of Yue Guang saw a snake writhing in his wine, drank it out of politeness and went home sick for months. Yue Guang worked out that a painted bow on the wall had been reflected in the cup, sat his friend in the same seat and showed him the snake again. The man recovered on the spot.
bēi gōng shé yǐng. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.
杯 (bēi) Cup, 弓 (gōng) Bow, 蛇 (shé) Snake (serpent), 影 (yǐng) Shadow (photograph - movie - copy). These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the advanced band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 杯弓蛇影 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
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