Two rivals fight, a third party takes the prize
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.
A snipe stabbed at a clam sunning itself and the clam clamped shut on its beak. Neither would let go — the snipe said the clam would dry out, the clam said the snipe would starve — and while they argued a fisherman walked up and bagged them both. The story was told to talk two states out of a war that would only benefit Qin.
Source: 《战国策》Strategies of the Warring States, c. 1st 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.
鹬蚌相争 is pronounced yù bàng xiāng zhēng and means two rivals fight, a third party takes the prize. Literally it says "the snipe and the clam grapple" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《战国策》Strategies of the Warring States, c. 1st century BC. A snipe stabbed at a clam sunning itself and the clam clamped shut on its beak. Neither would let go — the snipe said the clam would dry out, the clam said the snipe would starve — and while they argued a fisherman walked up and bagged them both. The story was told to talk two states out of a war that would only benefit Qin.
yù bàng xiāng zhēng. 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.
鹬 (yù) Sandpiper (common snipe - [bird]), 蚌 (bàng) Clam (oyster - mussel), 相 (xiāng) Evaluate (mutually); Appearance (photograph - minister - judge), 争 (zhēng) Fight over (struggle - contend - argue). 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 鹬蚌相争 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.
All idioms