# 无奇不有



## J.F. de TROYES

This sentence which is the title of a slide show on the Web is puzzling me because it does'nt make sense to me - but my Chinese is poor - and  chiefly by using g "不 有 " which I know grammaticaly wrong. Here it is :

              "内 地 无  奇   不 有"

 Could you enlighten me ?  Thanks for advance.


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## Ovidius

This is a double negative phrase which means:there are many *wonders* in the mainland.


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## jedediah

More than often it is "*wonder*-ful" (bizarre) rather than "wonderful" to my eyes. 无所不能, 无所不知 are other examples in this fashion.


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## e.ma

I think the 不有 here conveys a "not existing" sense.


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## kareno999

J.F. de TROYES said:


> This sentence which is the title of a slide show on the Web is puzzling me because it does'nt make sense to me - but my Chinese is poor - and chiefly by using g "不有 " which I know grammaticaly wrong. Here it is :
> 
> "内地无奇不有"
> 
> Could you enlighten me ? Thanks for advance.


Salut J.F.,
Oui, vous avez raison. "不有" ne se trouve jamais dans un texte moderne. Mais ici, il releve de la expression integrale "无奇不有" qui est herite du chinois ancien et ne se peut pas expliquer d'apres la grammaire moderne.


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## kareno999

Ovidius said:


> This is a double negative phrase which means:there are many *wonders* in the mainland.


Actually, this setence sounds a little pejorative to me...


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## kareno999

kareno999 said:


> Actually, this setence sounds a little pejorative to me...


Hi Ovidius, I didn't mean your post is offensive. Sorry that I didn't make myself clear.
I was saying that the original sentence 内地无奇不有 sounds pejorative to me, but not necessarily so. 
The word "wonders" may not carry all the connotations of 无奇不有。


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## J.F. de TROYES

kareno999 said:


> I was saying that the original sentence 内地无奇不有 sounds pejorative to me, but not necessarily so.
> The word "wonders" may not carry all the connotations of 无奇不有。


 
Interesting ! Do you think the word  奇   could be also translated  by  "odd or "weird" and the sentence about something like : " In the mainland  the strange views are not lacking " , which indeed would match the pictures of this set.


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## J.F. de TROYES

jedediah said:


> More than often it is "*wonder*-ful" (bizarre) rather than "wonderful" to my eyes. 无所不能, 无所不知 are other examples in this fashion.


 
Thanks. Could you please translate your two examples ?


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## jedediah

内地无奇不有: *No*thing is *too* bizarre to exist in mainland XXX. 
他无所不能： There is *no*thing he can*not* do.
她无所不知： There is *no*thing she does*n't* know.
无往不利 (所到之处，没有不顺利的): *No* attempts *not *succeeded 

As Ovidius has said, 无X不X is a double negative construction. 

p.s. Though 无奇不有 itself does not have to be negative, it tends to be so when it is used to judge. (only my own view)


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## jedediah

jedediah said:


> More than often it is "*wonder*-ful" (bizarre) rather than "wonderful" to my eyes. 无所不能, 无所不知 are other examples in this fashion.



Here, *"wonder*" is supposed to mean "to feel wonder," if it wasn't clear enough.


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## Zhenyu

The grammar you learnt is modern Chinese. The sentence you asked is an old saying, when 有 rarely means to have and 没 was not introduce into Chinese.


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## jedediah

Zhenyu said:


> 没 was not introduce into Chinese.


This is a convincing point. I only thought them as set phrases.


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## J.F. de TROYES

谢 谢 大家  !   现在 昭然若揭 .


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## Yasin

J.F. de TROYES said:


> 谢谢大家 ! 现在  .


you can say 恍然大悟 .
In fact , the chinese idioms are very difficult, even to chinese people.
In the daily life, we are very  careful to pick any piece of idom. Some time it can make an embarrassing situation.
*昭然若揭 *usually is used in the situation of the truth is obvious, needless to mention .


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## Ovidius

kareno999 said:


> Hi Ovidius, I didn't mean your post is offensive. Sorry that I didn't make myself clear.
> I was saying that the original sentence 内地无奇不有 sounds pejorative to me, but not necessarily so.
> The word "wonders" may not carry all the connotations of 无奇不有。


 
No problem,kareno.


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## Zulis

Yasin said:


> you can say 恍然大悟 .
> In fact , the chinese idioms are very difficult, even to chinese people.
> In the daily life, we are very  careful to pick any piece of idom. Some time it can make an embarrassing situation.
> *昭然若揭 *usually is used in the situation of the truth is obvious, needless to mention .



+1 on translation.

Usually Chinese idioms has a history or story or in academic references like poems etc behind them. In order to fully understand them, sometimes we need to read about the story behind the idioms too.


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