Chinese idiom · 成语
一蛇两头
Meaning
A snake with two heads; figuratively, a sinister and malicious person.
Character by character
Origin and story
literary allusionHan Yu's poem Yongzhen Xing includes a startling image of a snake with two heads among hostile sights and sounds in a remote southern landscape. The poem is politically charged: it attacks figures associated with court upheaval, praises the succeeding ruler, and ends by warning former colleagues about the dangers surrounding them in exile. The strange animal belongs to that threatening poetic setting, not to a fable in which two heads argue over which way to travel. Dictionaries record the later figurative use for a sinister or malicious person. It is a rare and forceful insult, not a neutral description of competing plans.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
他说话好听，却暗中害人，真可谓一蛇两头。
He speaks pleasantly but secretly harms others—a truly sinister person.
Rare and strongly condemnatory; better suited to pointed literary commentary than casual disagreement.