不 知 者 不 罪

bù zhī zhě bù zuìdictionary entry

One who does not know is not guilty / If one does not know any better, one cannot be held responsible

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-8ce58c9500b4f628. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

不知者不罪 不知者不罪 [bu4 zhi1 zhe3 bu4 zui4] /One who does not know is not guilty/If one does not know any better, one cannot be held responsible/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
知
zhī
to know / to be aware
者
zhě
(after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ... / (after a noun) person involved in ... / -er / -ist / (used after a number or 後|后[hòu] or 前[qián] to refer to sth mentioned previously) / (used after a term, to mark a pause before defining the term) / (old) (used at the end of a command) / (old) this
不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
罪
zuì
guilt / crime / fault / blame / sin / variant of 罪[zuì], crime

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.