# 空穴來風
## Chinese

| | | emptied; leisure; airemptied; leisure; air; sky; empty; in vain | hole; cave | to come | wind; news; stylewind; news; style; custom; manner |
| trad. (空穴來風) | trad. (空穴來風) | 空 | 穴 | 來 | 風 |
| simp. (空穴来风) | simp. (空穴来风) | 空 | 穴 | 来 | 风 |
| Literally: “Empty holes attract the wind”. ||||||

### Etymology

From 《風賦》allegedly composed by Song Yu:
    枳句來巢，空穴來風。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]枳句来巢，空穴来风。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]From: Song Yu, 《風賦》Zhǐ gōu lái cháo, kōng xué lái fēng. [Pinyin]The twisted branches of a trifoliate orange tree invite birds to nest, and hollows and cracks summon the wind.
Note: the historical usage of the idiom may be etymologically unrelated to the mainstream usage today. See usage notes below for more.

### Pronunciation

* Mandarin
    (Pinyin): kōngxuéláifēng, kōngxuèláifēng
    (Zhuyin): ㄎㄨㄥ ㄒㄩㄝˊ ㄌㄞˊ ㄈㄥ, ㄎㄨㄥ ㄒㄩㄝˋ ㄌㄞˊ ㄈㄥ
* Cantonese (Jyutping): hung$^1$ jyut$^6$ loi$^4$ fung$^1$
* Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): khang-hia̍t-lâi-hong
* Mandarin
** (Standard Chinese, standard in Mainland)
*** Hanyu Pinyin: kōngxuéláifēng
*** Zhuyin: ㄎㄨㄥ ㄒㄩㄝˊ ㄌㄞˊ ㄈㄥ
*** Tongyong Pinyin: kongsyuéláifong
*** Wade–Giles: kʻung$^1$-hsüeh$^2$-lai$^2$-fêng$^1$
*** Yale: kūng-sywé-lái-fēng
*** Gwoyeu Romatzyh: kongshyuelaifeng
*** Palladius: кунсюэлайфэн (kunsjuelajfɛn)
*** Sinological IPA : /kʰʊŋ⁵⁵ ɕy̯ɛ³⁵ laɪ̯³⁵ fɤŋ⁵⁵/
** (Standard Chinese, standard in Taiwan; variant in Mainland)
*** Hanyu Pinyin: kōngxuèláifēng
*** Zhuyin: ㄎㄨㄥ ㄒㄩㄝˋ ㄌㄞˊ ㄈㄥ
*** Tongyong Pinyin: kongsyuèláifong
*** Wade–Giles: kʻung$^1$-hsüeh$^4$-lai$^2$-fêng$^1$
*** Yale: kūng-sywè-lái-fēng
*** Gwoyeu Romatzyh: kongshiuehlaifeng
*** Palladius: кунсюэлайфэн (kunsjuelajfɛn)
*** Sinological IPA : /kʰʊŋ⁵⁵ ɕy̯ɛ⁵¹ laɪ̯³⁵ fɤŋ⁵⁵/
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: hung$^1$ jyut$^6$ loi$^4$ fung$^1$
*** Yale: hūng yuht lòih fūng
*** Cantonese Pinyin: hung$^1$ jyt$^9$ loi$^4$ fung$^1$
*** Guangdong Romanization: hung$^1$ yud$^6$ loi$^4$ fung$^1$
*** Sinological IPA : /hʊŋ⁵⁵ jyːt̚² lɔːi̯²¹ fʊŋ⁵⁵/
* Southern Min
** (Hokkien: General Taiwanese)
*** Pe̍h-ōe-jī: khang-hia̍t-lâi-hong
*** Tâi-lô: khang-hia̍t-lâi-hong
*** Phofsit Daibuun: qanghiadlai'hofng
*** IPA (Taipei): /kʰaŋ⁴⁴⁻³³ hiɛt̚⁴⁻³² lai²⁴⁻¹¹ hɔŋ⁴⁴/
*** IPA (Kaohsiung): /kʰaŋ⁴⁴⁻³³ hiɛt̚⁴⁻³² lai²³⁻³³ hɔŋ⁴⁴/
* Middle Chinese: khuwng|khuwngH hwet loj pjuwng|pjuwngH
Rime :
| Character | 空 | 空 | 穴 | 來 | 風 | 風 |
| Reading # | 1/2 | 2/2 | 1/1 | 1/1 | 1/2 | 2/2 |
| Initial (聲) | 溪 (29) | 溪 (29) | 匣 (33) | 來 (37) | 幫 (1) | 幫 (1) |
| Final (韻) | 東 (1) | 東 (1) | 屑 (88) | 咍 (41) | 東 (2) | 東 (2) |
| Tone (調) | Level (Ø) | Departing (H) | Checked (Ø) | Level (Ø) | Level (Ø) | Departing (H) |
| Openness (開合) | Open | Open | Closed | Open | Open | Open |
| Division (等) | I | I | IV | I | III | III |
| Fanqie | 苦紅切 | 苦貢切 | 胡決切 | 洛哀切 | 方戎切 | 方鳳切 |
| Baxter | khuwng | khuwngH | hwet | loj | pjuwng | pjuwngH |
| Reconstructions |||||||
| Zhengzhang Shangfang | /kʰuŋ/ | /kʰuŋ$^H$/ | /ɦwet̚/ | /lʌi/ | /pɨuŋ/ | /pɨuŋ$^H$/ |
| Pan Wuyun | /kʰuŋ/ | /kʰuŋ$^H$/ | /ɦʷet̚/ | /ləi/ | /piuŋ/ | /piuŋ$^H$/ |
| Shao Rongfen | /kʰuŋ/ | /kʰuŋ$^H$/ | /ɣuɛt̚/ | /lɒi/ | /piuŋ/ | /piuŋ$^H$/ |
| Edwin Pulleyblank | /kʰəwŋ/ | /kʰəwŋ$^H$/ | /ɦwɛt̚/ | /ləj/ | /puwŋ/ | /puwŋ$^H$/ |
| Li Rong | /kʰuŋ/ | /kʰuŋ$^H$/ | /ɣuet̚/ | /lᴀi/ | /piuŋ/ | /piuŋ$^H$/ |
| Wang Li | /kʰuŋ/ | /kʰuŋ$^H$/ | /ɣiwet̚/ | /lɒi/ | /pĭuŋ/ | /pĭuŋ$^H$/ |
| Bernhard Karlgren | /kʰuŋ/ | /kʰuŋ$^H$/ | /ɣiwet̚/ | /lɑ̆i/ | /pi̯uŋ/ | /pi̯uŋ$^H$/ |
| Expected Mandarin Reflex | kōng | kòng | xué | lái | fēng | fèng |
| Expected Cantonese Reflex | hung$^1$ | hung$^3$ | jyut$^6$ | loi$^4$ | fung$^1$ | fung$^3$ |
* Old Chinese
    (Baxter–Sagart): /*kʰˤoŋ|kʰˤoŋʔ [ɢ]ʷˤi[t] mə.rˤək|mə.rˤək prəm|prəm-s/
    (Zhengzhang): /*kʰoːŋ|kʰoːŋs ɡʷliːɡ m·rɯːɡ plum|plums/
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014) :
| Character | 空 | 空 | 穴 | 來 | 來 | 風 | 風 |
| Reading # | 1/2 | 2/2 | 1/1 | 1/2 | 2/2 | 1/2 | 2/2 |
| Modern Beijing (Pinyin) | kōng | kǒng | xué | lái | lái | fēng | fèng |
| Middle Chinese | ‹ khuwng › | ‹ khuwng$^X$ › | ‹ hwet › | ‹ loj › | ‹ loj › | ‹ pjuwng › | ‹ pjuwng$^H$ › |
| Old Chinese | /*kʰˁoŋ/ | /*kʰˁoŋʔ/ | /*[ɢ]ʷˁi[t]/ | /*mə.rˁək/ (> *mə.rˁə) | /*mə.rˁək/ (> *rˁə) | /*prəm/ | /*prəm-s/ |
| English | hollow, empty; hole | hollow, empty; hole | cave, pit | a kind of wheat | come | wind (n.) | blow; criticize |
| Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary. ||||||||
Zhengzhang system (2003) :
| Character | 空 | 空 | 穴 | 來 | 風 | 風 |
| Reading # | 1/2 | 2/2 | 1/1 | 1/1 | 1/2 | 2/2 |
| No. | 4034 | 4045 | 14092 | 7598 | 2921 | 2929 |
| Phonetic component | 工 | 工 | 穴 | 來 | 凡 | 凡 |
| Rime group | 東 | 東 | 質 | 之 | 侵 | 侵 |
| Rime subdivision | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Corresponding MC rime | 空 | 控 | 穴 | | 風 | |
| Old Chinese | /*kʰoːŋ/ | /*kʰoːŋs/ | /*ɡʷliːɡ/ | /*m·rɯːɡ/ | /*plum/ | /*plums/ |
| Notes | | | | | | 同諷見詩 |

### Idiom

空穴來風
* (of a rumour, literary, dated) to be not completely unsound; to have a basis for its existence
* (of a rumour, in modern uses) to be completely unsound; to be utterly baseless

#### Usage notes

This term can both mean "to be not completely unsound" and "to be completely unsound", with different dictionaries offering competing (and contradictory) definitions of the term, although in modern usage the latter definition appears more frequently. However, this latter definition is proscribed by certain media publications based on the etymology and historical usage of the term, arguing that this is a common writing mistake and that the former definition should be used instead.
Some scholars note that the ambiguous meaning of 空 in this idiom may have given rise to the contradictory definitions. For the definition of "to be not completely unsound", 空 refers to "empty", i.e. that an empty hole easily gives rise to wind, implying that a rumour has reason to have arisen. For the definition of "to be completely unsound", 空 refers to "none", i.e. that no hole exists which could have given rise to wind, implying that a rumour has no reason to arise and has been fabricated from nothing. Thus, 空穴來風 should not be viewed as a single lemma but as two separate idioms (perhaps with separate etymologies), that is, homonym in its strict sense. Others argue that this is an instance where misunderstanding and mistaken use of the original idiom has displaced the intended definition to become the mainstream use.
From its 6th edition, 《現代漢語詞典》 (Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese) records both meanings under its entry for 空穴來風. Prior editions had only recorded the definition "to be completely unsound".

### References

* ↑ 由“空穴来风”说到读书方法
* ↑ 空穴来风一词要欺骗国人多久
* ↑ 从成语的“误解误用”看汉语词汇的发展
* ↑ 《中国成语大会》（彩绘版）专家写给孩子的国学读物
* ↑ “空穴来风”无穴哪来风