a chill runs down one‘s spine

不寒而栗

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.

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。

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.

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。

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.

当义纵被调任到南阳郡做河内郡都尉，当地的恶霸宁成为了讨好义纵，所以每次遇见义纵总是假装成非常谦逊恭敬的样子。

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.

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。

Later， Emperor Wu Di (汉武帝) of the Han Dynasty appointed Yi Zong the prefect of the Dingxiang Prefecture (定襄).

后来，汉武帝又任命义纵做定襄太守。

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.

当时定襄的社会治安十分混乱。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。

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.

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。

英文中“不寒而栗”可以说成“a chill runs down one‘s spine”，“spine”就是“脊椎”的意思，那这个短语也就是“一股寒气从脊椎流下”的意思啦~

平时看了恐怖片或是听了鬼故事后，我们常会说“身后感到一阵发凉”，这样想也就不难理解了，也就是“不寒而栗”的意思。