p8nda
p8nda BETA
Home Dictionary Discord

冲冠一怒为红颜

衝冠一怒為紅顏
chōngguānyīnùwèihóngyán
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 with hair bristling through the cap, raging all for a beautiful woman
  2. 2 to upend the world in fury for the sake of a lover
  3. 3 (lit.) bristling-cap, one rage, for a red face (beauty)

Examples

他冲冠一怒为红颜，竟放弃了大好前途。
Tā chōngguān yī nù wèi hóngyán, jìng fàngqì le dàhǎo qiántú.
In a fit of rage for his beloved, he threw away a bright future.
历史上冲冠一怒为红颜的例子不少，吴三桂是最出名的。
Lìshǐ shàng chōngguān yī nù wèi hóngyán de lìzi bùshǎo, Wú Sānguì shì zuì chūmíng de.
History has many cases of men enraged over a woman — Wu Sangui is the most famous.

Tips

history
From Wu Weiye's (吴伟业, Ming-Qing transition) 《圆圆曲》: 恸哭六军俱缟素，冲冠一怒为红颜。(Six armies wept together, all robed in white — he raged with hair bristling his cap, all for a beauty.) The 'beauty' is Chen Yuanyuan (陈圆圆); the enraged man is Ming general Wu Sangui (吴三桂), who opened the Shanhai Pass to the Manchus in 1644 partly over her abduction by rebel Li Zicheng — a decision that toppled the Ming.
usage
红颜 (hóngyán, 'red face') = a beautiful woman, poetic. 冲冠 is a literal borrowing from 怒发冲冠 'hair so angry it pushes up the cap.' The phrase carries a complicated tone — romantic yet disastrous.

Stroke Order

冲 chōng
冠 guān
一 yī
怒 nù
为 wèi
红 hóng
颜 yán