To take on something far beyond your strength
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.
Zhuangzi describes a mantis standing in a cart track with its forelegs up, refusing to give way — magnificent, and about to be flattened. It is admiration and warning at once: the courage is real, and so is the wheel.
Source: 《庄子》Zhuangzi, 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.
螳臂当车 is pronounced táng bì dāng chē and means to take on something far beyond your strength. Literally it says "a mantis raising its arms against a chariot" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《庄子》Zhuangzi, 4th century BC. Zhuangzi describes a mantis standing in a cart track with its forelegs up, refusing to give way — magnificent, and about to be flattened. It is admiration and warning at once: the courage is real, and so is the wheel.
táng bì dāng chē. 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.
螳 (táng) Praying mantis, 臂 (bì) Arm, 当 (dāng) Should (facing - when - act as - equal); Appropriate (assume), 车 (chē) Car (bus - vehicle - wheel - machine). 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 advanced band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 螳臂当车 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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