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無中生有

简无中生有 · 繁無中生有

Mandarin · pinyin wú zhōng shēng yǒu

to create something from nothing (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

無: Look up this written character
中: zhōng · central; center, middle; in the midst of; hit (target); attain
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
有: yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
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

2–1–1–3 · wu2 zhong1 sheng1 you3

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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.

無中生有 · find source passages ↗ · 无中生有 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mou4 zung1 sang1 jau5

Cantonese word readings for 無中生有. 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

(Taoism) all existence sprang from nonexistence
(idiomatic) to fabricate; to make up unfounded rumor; to trump up
(idiomatic) out of thin air

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

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