DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

不辨菽麥

简不辨菽麦 · 繁不辨菽麥

Mandarin · pinyin bù biàn shū mài

lit. cannot tell beans from wheat (idiom); fig. ignorant of practical matters

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
辨: biàn · distinguish, discriminate
菽: shū · beans and peas, collectively
麥: Look up this written character
麦: mài · wheat, barley, oats; simplified form of Kangxi radical 199

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–4–1–4 · bu4 bian4 shu1 mai4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

不辨菽麥 · find source passages ↗ · 不辨菽麦 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to have no knowledge of practical matters; to be ignorant of practical matters

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack