📖 Meaning
The gap is so narrow that it cannot accommodate even a single strand of hair. It is a metaphor for being perilously close to disaster or for a situation that has reached a critical, hair-trigger extreme. The phrase conveys the razor-thin margin between safety and catastrophe.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from a memorial written by Mei Cheng (枚乘) during the Han Dynasty, titled '上书谏吴王' (A Memorial Advising the Prince of Wu). Mei Cheng warned the Prince of Wu against rebellion by comparing the situation to a rope snapped high in the sky that cannot be retied, or an object fallen into a deep abyss that is nearly impossible to retrieve. He wrote that whether the object emerges or not is a matter of the narrowest margin — a gap not even wide enough for a single hair — urging the prince to recognize the extreme danger of his position.
💡 Example Usage
情势间不容发，稍有差池便会酿成大祸。
The situation was so critical that the slightest misstep could lead to catastrophe.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 间不容发
- Pinyin: jiàn bù róng fà
- Literal Translation: gap, not, contain, hair
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4