📖 Meaning
The phrase describes a seller who quotes a single fixed price and never offers a second one, refusing to haggle with customers. It reflects honest, straightforward dealing in business. By extension, it characterizes a person who keeps their word and does not go back on what they have said.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the Biographies of Recluses in the Book of the Later Han (《后汉书·逸民传·韩康》). Han Kang (courtesy name Boxiu) was a recluse of the Eastern Han dynasty from Baling near Chang'an who gathered medicinal herbs in famous mountains and sold them in the Chang'an market. For over thirty years he always stated one price and never bargained. One day a woman buying medicine from him grew angry and asked whether he was the famous Han Boxiu, saying, 'Is this why you refuse to give a second price?' Sighing that his seclusion had failed and even a woman in the market knew his name, he abandoned his medicine stall and fled into the mountains, and the emperor later tried in vain to summon him to office.
💡 Example Usage
这家老店口不二价，从不与顾客讨价还价。
This old shop quotes one fixed price and never haggles with its customers.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 口不二价
- Pinyin: kǒu bù èr jià
- Literal Translation: mouth, not, two, price
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4