不寒而慄
西漢時期，有一個名叫義縱的人。由於他的姐姐醫治好了漢武帝的母親王太后的病，因此義縱也得到了漢武帝的任用。他先是在幾個地方擔任縣令，後來又多次升遷。在任職期間，義縱公正無私，不懼怕權貴，嚴格執行各種法令，使當地的秩序有了極大的改觀，那些違法亂紀的人都非常怕他。後來，義縱又升遷為南陽太守，他聽說有一個名叫寧成的都尉橫徵暴斂，殘暴無比，於是就派人查實了寧成的種種罪行，根據法律給他治了罪。
不久，由於定襄地區秩序非常混亂，犯罪分子十分猖獗，漢武帝便把義縱派到定襄擔任太守。義縱一到定襄，就採取了十分嚴厲的措施。他從在監獄服刑的罪犯中挑出二百多名重罪輕判並且有私自解脫桎梏行為的犯人，從重判决，斬首示眾；同時，將二百多名私自到監獄探望這些重犯並幫助他們逃跑的人一併斬首。
這件事在定襄地區引起了極大的轟動，大家都在議論義縱一天殺死四百多人這件事。此時雖然天氣不寒冷，可是有些人卻心驚膽戰，渾身發抖。那些過去有過犯罪行為的人，從此之後便老實多了。
後來，人們根據這一故事概括出“不寒而慄”這個成語，形容非常恐懼的心情。戰慄，顫抖。
During the Han dynasty (汉朝, 206BC—220AD), there was a man whose name was Yi Zong (义纵). Because of the special kindness of the mother of the emperor, Yi Zong was made a magistrate in one county.
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.
When Yi Zong was transferred to be the prefect of the Nanyang Prefecture (南阳郡), Ning Cheng (宁成), 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.
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 Wu Di (汉武帝) of the Han Dynasty appointed Yi Zong the prefect of the Dingxiang Prefecture (定襄).
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.
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.