







非钱不行 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “refers to a situation where things cannot be accomplished or processed without money, often implying a system where bribery or financial influence is necessary”. Literally, “Without money, it won't work”.
During the Tang Dynasty, Zheng Yin was appointed as an assistant minister in the Ministry of Personnel, overseeing the selection of lower-ranking officials. At that time, the officialdom was very corrupt, with bribery being rampant. One could not secure a good position without bribing officials in the Ministry of Personnel.
A certain candidate tied 100 coins to his shoelace. Zheng Yin, seeing this, found it strange and asked him the reason. The candidate replied, "In today's selection process, it simply won't work without money."

Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →
Picture and word Bingo for your class
Open the tool →
Choose character parts and animate their colors, together or in stroke order
Open the tool →
Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →非钱不行 (fēi qián bù xíng) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “refers to a situation where things cannot be accomplished or processed without money, often implying a system where bribery or financial influence is necessary”.
非钱不行 is pronounced fēi qián bù xíng in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 非钱不行 means “Without money, it won't work”. It is used to mean “refers to a situation where things cannot be accomplished or processed without money, often implying a system where bribery or financial influence is necessary”.
非钱不行 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
指官场黑暗,贪污成风,办事没有钱打通关节是行不通的