千钧一发

千鈞一髮
qiānjūn-yīfà
idiom HSK 7 #26,743

Meanings

  1. 1 a critical moment; a hair's breadth from disaster
  2. 2 hanging by a thread

Characters

Literally 'a thousand jūn (30,000 jin) hanging from a single hair' — an enormous weight suspended by the thinnest thread, about to snap at any moment.

Examples

Zài qiānjūn-yīfà zhī jì, tā bèi jiù le chūlái.
At the last critical moment, he was rescued.
Qiānjūn-yīfà de shíkè, xiāofángyuán chōngjìn le huǒchǎng.
At the critical moment, the firefighters rushed into the blaze.

Tips

history
This idiom comes from the Han dynasty scholar (Méi Chéng), who wrote to a king: 'It is like a thousand jūn weight hanging by a single hair — the danger is beneath it.' A was about 15 kg, so ≈ 15 tons dangling from one strand of hair.

Stroke Order

qiān
jūn