







穷凶极恶 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “Utterly vicious and ruthless”. Extremely cruel and wicked. Literally, “Extremely fierce and evil”.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang, leveraging his status as the emperor's father-in-law, changed the dynastic name to 'Xin'.
He claimed to be implementing reforms, but in reality, he was restoring ancient systems, which severely impacted agriculture and commerce.
He extensively collected beautiful women from the populace for the palace, exercised brutal rule, and cruelly exploited the people, causing chaos and unrest throughout Chang'an city.
The 'Book of Han' commented that he was utterly vicious and cruel, spreading poison throughout all of China.