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一山不容二虎

Mandarin · pinyin yī shān bù róng èr hǔ

lit. the mountain can't have two tigers (idiom)
fig. this town ain't big enough for the two of us
(of two rivals) to be fiercely competitive

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Characters in this entry

一: yī · one; a, an; alone
山: shān · mountain, hill, peak
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
容: róng · looks, appearance; figure, form
二: èr · two; twice
虎: hǔ · tiger; brave, fierce; surname

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–2–4–3 · yi1 shan1 bu4 rong2 er4 hu3

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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.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

proverb

Two strong people are incompatible and cannot coexist in the same place.

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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