驚弓之鳥 (Jīnggōngzhīniǎo)

[Daimashin]

驚弓之鳥 (Jīnggōngzhīniǎo) - Traumatic, on edge.

Literal Meaning - Bow phobic bird.

Once upon a time there were two birds flying over the city. Bird A was telling Bird B about how it was shot the last time it flew here and warned Bird B not to stay for too long. Two men were standing below, the emperor and his assistant. His assistant said to the emperor that he could shoot down the bird with a bow and no arrow. The emperor did not believe and asked the assistant to prove it. The assistant took a bow with no arrow and began taunting the birds. Bird B saw this and immediately flew away while Bird A which was injured prior was flying slow and scared. The assistant finally mock released the bow string in an attempt to "shoot" Bird A. Bird A panicked and thought that it had been stroke by the assistant and fell to its death.

The emperor asked his assistant how he did it. He answered that he saw that Bird A was injured and was chirping noisily so he deducted that Bird A was scared. He then told the emperor that Bird A was actually scared to death and that there was no magic.

驚弓之鳥 (Jīnggōngzhīniǎo) means someone gets phobia over something that caused mishaps to the person before.

Example:

"因為他曾經遇過空難. 現在他看到飛機就怕. 這叫說「驚弓之鳥」"