A last stand where losing is not survivable
The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.
Han Xin drew his outnumbered troops up with a river directly behind them — a formation every textbook forbade. Unable to run, they fought like men with nothing to lose, while a detached force seized the enemy camp behind. Asked afterwards, he said you have to put soldiers somewhere they cannot flee before they will fight.
Source: 《史记》Records of the Grand Historian, c. 94 BC
The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.
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背水一战 is pronounced bèi shuǐ yī zhàn and means a last stand where losing is not survivable. Literally it says "fight with the river at your back" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《史记》Records of the Grand Historian, c. 94 BC. Han Xin drew his outnumbered troops up with a river directly behind them — a formation every textbook forbade. Unable to run, they fought like men with nothing to lose, while a detached force seized the enemy camp behind. Asked afterwards, he said you have to put soldiers somewhere they cannot flee before they will fight.
bèi shuǐ yī zhàn. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.
背 (bèi) Back (one's back - burdened - carry on the back), 水 (shuǐ) Water (river), 一 (yī) One (single), 战 (zhàn) War (fight - battle - shiver). These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the intermediate band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 背水一战 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
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