擢发难数 — “To describe numerous crimes”

擢发难数 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to describe numerous crimes”. Faults, or misdeeds that are impossible to count, likening them to the uncountable strands of hair one could pluck from a head. Literally, “Pluck out hair, difficult to count”.

Frequency

擢发难数 Pronunciation and Pinyin

擢发难数 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
擢	zhuó	17	promote or select
发	fà	5	to issue, send, or develop
难	nán	10	difficult, troublesome, or bad
数	shǔ	13	count, number, several, fate

Example Sentence with 擢发难数

那家公司生产劣质产品的行径真是擢发难数，给消费者带来了巨大损失。

The company's acts of producing inferior products were so numerous that they were impossible to count, causing immense losses to consumers.

Origin and Story of 擢发难数

During the Warring States period, Fan Ju, a retainer of Wei statesman Xu Jia, accompanied Xu Jia on a visit to Qi, where he was praised by King Xiang of Qi.

Upon returning to Wei, Xu Jia reported this to Prime Minister Wei Qi, who then sought to kill Fan Ju. Fan Ju narrowly escaped death and fled to Qin, where he changed his name to Zhang Lu and became the Prime Minister.

Later, Xu Jia came to Qin to plead with Qin not to attack Wei. Xu Jia repented to Zhang Lu, saying that his own sins were too numerous to count, like trying to count every hair plucked from one's head (擢发难数).