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生米煮成熟飯

简生米煮成熟饭 · 繁生米煮成熟飯

Mandarin · pinyin shēng mǐ zhǔ chéng shú fàn

the rice is cooked
what's done is done
it's too late to change anything now (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
米: mǐ · hulled or husked uncooked rice
煮: zhǔ · cook
成: chéng · completed, finished, fixed
熟: shú · well-cooked; ripe; familiar with
飯: fàn · cooked rice; food; meal
饭: fàn · cooked rice; food, meal

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–3–2–2–4 · sheng1 mi3 zhu3 cheng2 shu2 fan4

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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.

生米煮成熟飯 · find source passages ↗ · 生米煮成熟饭 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

saang1 mai5 zyu2 sing4 suk6 faan6

Cantonese word readings for 生米煮成熟飯. 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) there is no turning back; what's done is done; you can't turn back the clock

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

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