In this paper, we have three inter-related goals: to explore the cognitive interrelations among form, content, and intention among Chinese fourcharacter idioms, or chengyir, to update the standard taxonomy of figures; and to criticize the self-imposed limitation of cognitive figuration studies to only one wing of that taxonomy. The standard taxonomy has two categories: schemes (deviation from form, like rhyme), and tropes (deviation from content, like metaphor). Cognitive studies of figuration are preoccupied with tropes alone, and with only a few of those, while the traditional taxonomy badly mishandles figures like interrogatio (rhetorical question), which are deviations of intention (that we call chroma). Our preliminary survey of chengyu reveals the interplay of these three categories; highlights the importance of schemes, largely neglected in cognitive studies of figuration; and crucially implicates chroma, largely neglected in all theories of figuration.