To kill two birds with one stone
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.
The envoy Zhangsun Sheng was riding with a Turkic khan when two vultures appeared overhead, fighting over a scrap of meat. Handed two arrows, he loosed one — and brought both birds down together.
Source: 《北史》History of the Northern Dynasties, 7th century AD
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.
一箭双雕 is pronounced yī jiàn shuāng diāo and means to kill two birds with one stone. Literally it says "two vultures with one arrow" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《北史》History of the Northern Dynasties, 7th century AD. The envoy Zhangsun Sheng was riding with a Turkic khan when two vultures appeared overhead, fighting over a scrap of meat. Handed two arrows, he loosed one — and brought both birds down together.
yī jiàn shuāng diāo. 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.
一 (yī) One (single), 箭 (jiàn) Arrow, 双 (shuāng) Double (pair - both), 雕 (diāo) Carve (vulture). 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 beginner band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 一箭双雕 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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