'Xū jīng' literally combines 'xū' (empty, false, unreal) and 'jīng' (fright, alarm, shock), meaning a sudden fear or panic that proves to be baseless — a scare without real danger. It emphasizes the emotional reaction itself, not the cause, and always implies relief upon realizing there was no actual threat.

This noun is commonly used in spoken and written Chinese to describe everyday incidents: hearing a loud noise at night and thinking it’s an intruder, seeing a snake-shaped branch and jumping back, or misreading medical test results. It carries a mild, often slightly self-deprecating tone — the speaker acknowledges their own overreaction. While it can follow verbs like 'yǒu' (to have) or 'chǎnshēng' (to arise), it rarely appears alone in isolation; it typically occurs in phrases like 'yī chǎng xū jīng' (a false alarm) or 'zào chéng yī chǎng xū jīng' (to cause a false alarm).