疾恶如仇

Origin and story

In a memorial preserved in the Book of the Later Han's biography of Chen Fan, Chen defends officials punished after acting against powerful wrongdoers. He praises Zhai Chao and Huang Fu for serving the public without yielding and for hating wrongdoing as fiercely as an enemy. Zhai had confiscated Hou Lan's property, while Huang had punished Xu Xuan; Chen argues that their actions against abuse should not have brought retaliation.

The phrase is part of Chen's defense of these men, not merely a narrator's label for Chen himself. The historical spelling uses 讎 or its variant, corresponding to 仇 here. Modern usage praises an uncompromising moral opposition to evil and injustice.