📖 Meaning
There is a crack or loophole that can be taken advantage of. It describes a situation where a vulnerability or weakness exists in an opponent's position, making it ripe for exploitation. The idiom is often used in strategic or competitive contexts to urge seizing the moment.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom first appears in '秦并六国平话' (Tales of Qin's Unification of the Six States), a Song-Yuan dynasty historical narrative, where it warns that if adversaries show a weakness, a third party will exploit it — just as the fisherman gains when the snipe and clam lock in combat. It also surfaces in Song dynasty official Lou Yue's '攻媿集' (Volume 95), where he urges reinforcing troop deployments to deny enemies any exploitable opening. The expression gained lasting fame through its use in Luo Guanzhong's Ming dynasty classic 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms', where a strategist argues for attacking Wei precisely because an opening has appeared.
💡 Example Usage
今魏有隙可乘，不就此时伐之，更等何时？
Now that Wei has a vulnerability to exploit, if we do not attack them at this moment, when shall we?
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 有隙可乘
- Pinyin: yǒu xì kě chèng
- Literal Translation: have, gap, can, exploit
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4