两虎相斗 — “When two powerful rivals contend”

两虎相斗 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “When two powerful rivals contend”. Both are likely to suffer damage, or one will be weakened, allowing a third party to benefit. Literally, “Two tigers fight each other”.

Frequency

两虎相斗 Pronunciation and Pinyin

两虎相斗 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
两	liǎng	7	two, a couple of
虎	hǔ	8	Tiger; brave; intimidate
相	xiāng	9	mutual or appearance
斗	dòu	4	fight, struggle, contend

Example Sentence with 两虎相斗

两个顶尖的围棋选手在决赛中相遇，这真是一场两虎相斗的对决，胜负难以预料。

Two top Go players met in the final match, truly a confrontation of two powerful rivals, with an unpredictable outcome.

Origin and Story of 两虎相斗

Bian Zhuangzi spotted two tigers and immediately drew his sword, ready to strike. A young attendant by his side advised him, 'Sir, look, the two tigers are sharing a single ox. They will surely fight each other over the delicious meat. When two tigers contend, the larger one will surely be injured, and the smaller one will die. At that time, if you stab the injured tiger, you will achieve two objectives with one action.'

Bian Zhuangzi felt the attendant's advice was very sound and stood waiting.

After a while, the two tigers, indeed, began to snarl and bite each other over the meat. The smaller tiger was killed, and the larger tiger was also wounded.

Bian Zhuangzi suddenly sprang out, brandished his sword, and effortlessly struck down the injured tiger, thus securing both tigers.