坐山观虎斗
zuò shān guān hǔ dòu
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 坐山觀虎鬥
To stay out of a fight between two rivals and wait, hoping to profit once both are worn out. Used, usually critically, of a third party that watches a conflict from a safe distance.
Ngồi trên núi xem hổ đánh nhau: đứng ngoài cuộc tranh chấp của hai bên, chờ cả hai suy yếu để mình hưởng lợi. Thường dùng với ý chê bên thứ ba cố tình khoanh tay đứng nhìn.
Register: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 062 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 坐 = tọa · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “tọa sơn quan hổ đấu” (toa-son-quan-ho-dau). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “坐山观虎斗” mean?
To stay out of a fight between two rivals and wait, hoping to profit once both are worn out. Used, usually critically, of a third party that watches a conflict from a safe distance. Literally: sit on the mountain, watch the tigers fight
Is “坐山观虎斗” formal or informal?
坐山观虎斗 is generally neutral.