一夫當關,萬夫莫開

简 一夫当关,万夫莫开 · 繁 一夫當關,萬夫莫開
Mandarin · pinyin yī fū dāng guān , wàn fū mò kāi

Meanings

  1. (idiom) one man guarding the pass can prevent the passage of ten thousand
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Characters in this entry

一
yī · one; a, an; alone
夫
fū · man, male adult, husband; those
當
dāng · bear, accept, undertake; just
關
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萬
Look up this written character
莫
mò · do not, is not, can not; negative
開
kāi · open; initiate, begin, start
当
dāng · bear, accept, undertake; just
关
guān · frontier pass; close; relation
万
wàn · mò · ten thousand; innumerable
开
kāi · open; initiate, begin, start
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

一夫當關,萬夫莫開 · find source passages ↗ · 一夫当关,万夫莫开 · find source passages ↗

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一夫當關,萬夫莫開 · yi1 fu1 dang1 guan1 , wan4 fu1 mo4 kai1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 533
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record一夫當關,萬夫莫開 一夫当关,万夫莫开 [yi1 fu1 dang1 guan1 , wan4 fu1 mo4 kai1] /(idiom) one man guarding the pass can prevent the passage of ten thousand/