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無事生非

简无事生非 · 繁無事生非

Mandarin · pinyin wú shì shēng fēi

to make trouble out of nothing

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Characters in this entry

無: Look up this written character
事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
非: fēi · not, negative, non-; oppose; Kangxi radical 175
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

2–4–1–1 · wu2 shi4 sheng1 fei1

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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.

無事生非 · find source passages ↗ · 无事生非 · 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to make trouble out of nothing; to be deliberately provocative

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

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