To offer a full and humble apology
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.
The general Lian Po resented the rapid promotion of the diplomat Lin Xiangru and picked quarrels until he learned why Lin kept avoiding him: while the two of them held together, Qin dared not attack Zhao. Lian Po stripped to the waist, tied a bundle of thorns to his back and walked to Lin's gate to be flogged. They became lifelong friends.
Source: 《史记》Records of the Grand Historian, c. 94 BC
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.
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负荆请罪 is pronounced fù jīng qǐng zuì and means to offer a full and humble apology. Literally it says "carry the thorn rod and ask to be punished" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《史记》Records of the Grand Historian, c. 94 BC. The general Lian Po resented the rapid promotion of the diplomat Lin Xiangru and picked quarrels until he learned why Lin kept avoiding him: while the two of them held together, Qin dared not attack Zhao. Lian Po stripped to the waist, tied a bundle of thorns to his back and walked to Lin's gate to be flogged. They became lifelong friends.
fù jīng qǐng zuì. 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.
负 (fù) Lose (carry - to bear - negative number), 荆 (jīng) Thorns (brambles), 请 (qǐng) Please (ask - invite - request), 罪 (zuì) Sin (crime - guilt - fault - blame). 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 intermediate band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 负荆请罪 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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