DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
有意栽花花不發，無心插柳柳成陰
简 有意栽花花不发，无心插柳柳成阴 · 繁 有意栽花花不發，無心插柳柳成陰Mandarin · pinyin yǒu yì zāi huā huā bù fā , wú xīn chā liǔ liǔ chéng yīn
Meanings
- lit. you plant a garden and the flowers do not bloom, you poke a stick in the mud and it grows into a tree
- fig. things do not always turn out as one would expect
- well-laid plans may fail, and success may come where you least expect it
Characters in this entry
- 有
- yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
- 意
- yì · thought, idea, opinion; think
- 栽
- zāi · to cultivate, plant; to care for plants
- 花
- huā · flower; blossoms
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 發
- fā · issue, dispatch, send out, emit
- 無
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- 心
- xīn · heart; mind, intelligence; soul; 5th lunar mansion, determinative star α Scorpii (Antares)
- 插
- chā · insert, stick into; plant
- 柳
- liǔ · willow tree; pleasure; 24th lunar mansion, determinative star δ Hydrae
- 成
- chéng · completed, finished, fixed
- 陰
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- 发
- fā · issue, dispatch, send out; hair
- 无
- wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
- 阴
- yīn · 'female' principle; dark; secret
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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.
有意栽花花不發，無心插柳柳成陰 · find source passages ↗ · 有意栽花花不发，无心插柳柳成阴 · find source passages ↗