不寒而慄
西汉时期，有一个名叫义纵的人。由于他的姐姐医治好了汉武帝的母亲王太后的病，因此义纵也得到了汉武帝的任用。他先是在几个地方担任县令，后来又多次升迁。在任职期间，义纵公正无私，不惧怕权贵，严格执行各种法令，使当地的秩序有了极大的改观，那些违法乱纪的人都非常怕他。后来，义纵又升迁为南阳太守，他听说有一个名叫宁成的都尉横徵暴敛，残暴无比，于是就派人查实了宁成的种种罪行，根据法律给他治了罪。
不久，由于定襄地区秩序非常混乱，犯罪分子十分猖獗，汉武帝便把义纵派到定襄担任太守。义纵一到定襄，就採取了十分严厉的措施。他从在监狱服刑的罪犯中挑出二百多名重罪轻判并且有私自解脱桎梏行为的犯人，从重判决，斩首示众；同时，将二百多名私自到监狱探望这些重犯并帮助他们逃跑的人一併斩首。
这件事在定襄地区引起了极大的轰动，大家都在议论义纵一天杀死四百多人这件事。此时虽然天气不寒冷，可是有些人却心惊胆战，浑身发抖。那些过去有过犯罪行为的人，从此之后便老实多了。
后来，人们根据这一故事概括出“不寒而慄”这个成语，形容非常恐惧的心情。栗，战慄，颤抖。
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.