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食古不化

Mandarin · pinyin shí gǔ bù huà

to swallow ancient learning without digesting it (idiom)
to be pedantic without having a mastery of one's subject

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Characters in this entry

食: shí · eat; meal; food; Kangxi radical 184
古: gǔ · old, classic, ancient
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
化: huà · change, convert, reform; -ize

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–4–4 · shi2 gu3 bu4 hua4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sik6 gu2 bat1 faa3

Cantonese word readings for 食古不化. 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) to rigidly adhere to old methods or styles without being flexible

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

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