be afraid of one‘s own shadow

草木皆兵

In AD 383， the king of Former Qin (秦朝)， Fu Jian (fú jiān 苻堅)， led a huge army to attack Eastern Jin.

公元383年，秦王苻堅率領(lǐng)步兵、騎兵90萬，攻打江南的晉朝。

After losing the first round of fighting， Fu Jian looked down from a city wall， and was terrified when he saw the formidable battle array of the Eastern Jin army.

在一輪戰(zhàn)敗后，苻堅從城墻俯視周遭，當(dāng)他看到勢不可破的東晉部隊，他感到很害怕。

And then looking at the mountains around， he mistook the grass and trees for enemy soldiers.

此時，苻堅在壽春城上望見晉軍隊伍嚴(yán)整，士氣高昂，再北望八公山，只見山上一草一木都像晉軍的士兵一樣，于是更加恐慌。

As a result， when the nervous Fu Jian led his army into battle， it suffered a crushing defeat.

后來苻堅全軍覆沒，帶著少數(shù)殘余的隊伍逃回去了。

This idiom describes how one can defeat oneself by imaging difficulties.

這個成語后來形容人在極度驚恐時，疑神疑鬼的心理狀態(tài)。

英文中“草木皆兵”的相應(yīng)說法可以用“afraid of one’s own shadow”，也就是一個人連自己的影子都怕，當(dāng)一個人連自己的影子都怕的時候，是不是就是疑神疑鬼，“草木皆兵”了呢~~

我們來一起看一個例句吧~

She stays at home all the time and never makes any new friends. She seems to be afraid of her own shadow.

她老待在家里， 從不交新朋友，感覺“草木皆兵”。