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亡羊補牢

简亡羊补牢 · 繁亡羊補牢

Mandarin · pinyin wáng yáng bǔ láo

lit. to mend the pen after sheep are lost (idiom)
fig. to act belatedly
better late than never
to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted

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Characters in this entry

亡: wáng · death, destroyed; lose, perish
羊: yáng · sheep, goat; Kangxi radical 123
補: Look up this written character
牢: láo · prison; stable, pen; secure
补: bǔ · mend, patch, fix, repair, restore

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–3–2 · wang2 yang2 bu3 lao2

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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.

亡羊補牢 · find source passages ↗ · 亡羊补牢 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mong4 joeng4 bou2 lou4

Cantonese word readings for 亡羊補牢. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to close the stable door after the horse has bolted; to act belatedly

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

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