Chinese idiom · 成语
东窗事发
Meaning
The east window plot is exposed; a hidden crime comes to light.
Character by character
Origin and story
LegendLiu Yiqing’s (劉一清) Qiantang Yishi (錢塘遺事), volume 2, tells a later supernatural story about Qin Hui’s role in Yue Fei’s death. Qin discusses killing Yue beside an east-facing window, and his wife’s warning against releasing a captured tiger settles his resolve. After Qin and his son die, a religious practitioner encounters them in the underworld.
There he finds Qin Hui and Moqi Xie suffering in iron restraints. Qin asks him to tell his wife that the east-window affair has been exposed. This is a moral-retribution legend, not evidence that the secret conversation was historically overheard. The idiom describes a concealed scheme or wrongdoing coming to light.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
他以为假账没人会查，没想到年底审计时东窗事发。
He thought no one would check the false accounts, but the year-end audit exposed them.
For the exposure of concealed wrongdoing, not simply surprising news.