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不寒而栗的故事

  汉武帝时,有一个人名叫义纵,因为受到太后的恩宠,做了上党郡某县令。上任以后,公务办得很出色,案子处理上敢作敢为,不论是有钱有势的豪绅,还是平民,只要犯了法,义纵秉公审办,皇上很赞赏他,调他做河内郡都尉。一到任,他立即把祸害一方的豪门大族满门抄斩,一时间,河内郡的治安和社会风气大有好转,有人不慎把东西失落在道路上,也没有人抢走据为已有。

  义纵调到南阳任太守时,一个做恶多端的豪强地主宁成,正在南阳居住。宁成为了讨好义纵,每次迎送都装出谦恭的样子。但是,义纵对他的恶行早有所闻,到南阳后立即展开调查,很快就查清他的罪行,把他关押起来。

  后来,汉武帝又任命义纵做定襄太守。当时定襄的社会治安历史学家混乱。义纵到任以后,把押在狱中的没有加开具的二百多名重犯,以及为重犯开脱罪责进行贿赂的二百多名门客亲属,一律严加追究,拘捕治罪,一天之内处死的就有四百多名。从此以后,定襄的人一听到义纵的名字就“不寒而栗”--天气不冷却浑身发抖。

 

shivering all over though not cold

 

 

  in the reign of emperor wudi of the han dynasty,there was a man whose name was yi zong.because of the special kindness of the mother of the emperor, yi zong was made a county magistrate in the shangdanh prefecture. after taking up the official post ,he did very well in managing the official business. he was courageous and resolute in bandling 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 .once the son of prince xiucheng violated the law . prince xiucheng was the son of the   daughter of the mother of the emperor. yizong handled the case impartially,for which he was thought of highly by the emperor and was transferred to be the commander of the armed forces in the henei prefecture.as soon as he took office ,he had all the members of a wealthy and influential family that had brought calamities to the people there executed. for a while , the  public order and the general mood of society in the henei prefectures were greatly improved.if someone should lose something on the road through carelessness,nobody would pick it up and take it as his own. when yizong was transferred to be the prefect of the nanyang prefecture,ningcheng,a despotic landlord who stopped at nothing in doing evil,wsa living there,in order to ingratiate himself with yizong,ning cheng pretended to be very modest and courteous every time he met yi zong and saw him off. but yi zong had heard of the evil conducts of ning zong and saw him off. 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.later ,emperor wudi of the han dynasty appointed yizong the prefect of the dingxiang prefecture .at that time, the publica 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 trom guilt.yizong 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 bay .from that day on ,whenever the name of yizong was mentioned.people in dingxinang would tremble with fear --they would shiver all over though  not cold. this story appears in the "lives of the merciless judges and prison wardens "in the historical records written by sima pian. the set phrase "shivering all over though not cold "is used to refer to the state of being extremely afraid.