Ji Dan, known as the Duke of Zhou, helped his elder brother King Wu overthrow the tyrant Zhou of Shang and establish the Zhou dynasty. The Duke was fiercely loyal to King Wu. When the king fell ill, the Duke grew deeply anxious and secretly wrote a prayer, begging the heavens to let him suffer in his brother's place. He sealed the prayer in a box bound with golden cords and hid it, telling no one. After King Wu's death, the Duke remained devoted, supporting the young King Cheng's succession. But the Duke's brothers, Guan Shu Xian and Cai Shu Du, conspired with Wu Geng, son of the tyrant Zhou, to rebel. Fearing the Duke's influence, they spread rumors that he planned to seize the throne. Wounded by the slander, the Duke fled the capital to the eastern territories. Soon, a great disaster struck. While praying to heaven, King Cheng discovered the Duke's hidden prayer box, was deeply moved, and personally invited him back to govern. The Duke then crushed Wu Geng and Guan Shu Xian's rebellion, exiled Cai Shu Du and his allies, and restored peace to the realm.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, his prime minister Tian Fen bore a private grudge against Guan Fu and Dou Ying. Seizing an excuse, Tian Fen arrested Guan Fu and his family, intending to have them executed. Outraged, Dou Ying argued before the emperor, exposing Tian Fen's misconduct. However, Emperor Wu favored Tian Fen and ordered the imperial censor to impeach Dou Ying for deceiving the sovereign. Imprisoned and learning of Guan Fu's death, Dou Ying, both furious and terrified, considered starving himself to death. But upon hearing that Emperor Wu did not intend to sentence him to death, he abandoned the idea. Seizing the opportunity, Tian Fen secretly spread rumors that Dou Ying was cursing the emperor as incompetent from prison. Believing these slanders, Emperor Wu ultimately had Dou Ying executed.
Later, people combined the two stories, summarizing "rumors spreading in the state" and "then there were slanders" into the idiom "liu yan fei yu," used to describe baseless, malicious gossip.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Biography of Tian Fen"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "流言蜚语" came to describe baseless, malicious gossip.