Two parties whose fates are bound together
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.
Jin asked the small state of Yu for passage to attack its neighbour Guo. A minister warned that Yu and Guo were lips and teeth: let Guo fall and Yu would be next. The bribe was accepted, Guo was destroyed, and Jin took Yu on the way home.
Source: 《左传》Zuo Zhuan, c. 4th century 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.
Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.
唇亡齿寒 is pronounced chún wáng chǐ hán and means two parties whose fates are bound together. Literally it says "when the lips are gone the teeth get cold" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《左传》Zuo Zhuan, c. 4th century BC. Jin asked the small state of Yu for passage to attack its neighbour Guo. A minister warned that Yu and Guo were lips and teeth: let Guo fall and Yu would be next. The bribe was accepted, Guo was destroyed, and Jin took Yu on the way home.
chún wáng chǐ hán. 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.
唇 (chún) Lip, 亡 (wáng) Deceased (to die - perish), 齿 (chǐ) Tooth, 寒 (hán) Cold (poor - tremble). 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 唇亡齿寒 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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