Enjoy free Chinese learning resources from us! This series covers idioms and proverbs, which are meaningful and useful in various scenarios. Let’s explore 「子虛烏有」 and its usage below.
This feature highlights the idiom 「子虛烏有」, with its meaning and examples shown below.
Zixu: not true; Wuyou: how could it be? Refers to something that is hypothetical, non-existent, or unreal.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
zǐ xū wū yǒu
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
ji2 heui1 wu1 yau5
There are a countless number of Chinese idioms, each with unique meanings and applications. We’ve provided these resources to help guide you as you dive deeper into learning Chinese.

