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巧婦難為無米之炊

简巧妇难为无米之炊 · 繁巧婦難為無米之炊

Mandarin · pinyin qiǎo fù nán wéi wú mǐ zhī chuī

The cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice (idiom); You won't get anywhere without equipment.

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Characters in this entry

巧: qiǎo · skillful, ingenious, clever
婦: Look up this written character
難: Look up this written character
為: Look up this written character
無: Look up this written character
米: mǐ · hulled or husked uncooked rice
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
炊: chuī · cook; meal
妇: fù · married women; woman; wife
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
为: wèi · do, handle, govern, act; be
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–2–2–2–3–1–1 · qiao3 fu4 nan2 wei2 wu2 mi3 zhi1 chui1

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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.

巧婦難為無米之炊 · find source passages ↗ · 巧妇难为无米之炊 · find source passages ↗

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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.

proverb

you can’t make bricks without straw

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

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