📖 Meaning
Describes a situation where all parties involved stubbornly refuse to yield or compromise with one another. This mutual intransigence typically leads to a deadlock, escalating conflict, or prolonged standoff.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from Feng Yuxiang's (冯玉祥) autobiographical work 'My Life' (《我的生活》), Chapter 23, written during the Republican era of China. Feng, a prominent warlord and military leader, used the phrase to describe the intense infighting he witnessed: two factions engaged in both open and covert struggles, each refusing to give ground to the other, with the situation growing more severe and dangerous by the day. The phrase captured the zero-sum political culture of the warlord period.
💡 Example Usage
双方在谈判桌上各不相让，僵持了整整三个小时。
Both sides refused to yield to each other at the negotiating table, remaining deadlocked for a full three hours.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 各不相让
- Pinyin: gè bù xiāng ràng
- Literal Translation: each, not, mutually, yield
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4