In the Warring States Period, Lin Xiangru, chief minister of the State of Zhao, was sent as an envoy to the State of Qin to ask the ruler of Qin to return a fine piece of jade（翡翠，碧玉） to Zhao. But the ruler of Qin was rude and unreasonable. Lin was angry, and his hair stood up so stiffly on his head that it lifted up his hat.

This idiom came to be used to mean being extremely angry.