不义之财

不義之財
bùyìzhīcái
idiom #33,396

Meanings

  1. 1 ill-gotten wealth
  2. 2 money obtained by improper means
  3. 3 dirty money

Examples

HSK 1
Bùyìzhīcái bùnéng ná.
Don't take ill-gotten wealth.
HSK 5
Tā jùjué le zhè bǐ bùyìzhīcái.
He turned down that dirty money.
HSK 6
Kào bùyìzhīcái fājiā shì bù chángjiǔ de.
A fortune built on ill-gotten gains never lasts.

Tips

history
From Liu Xiang's Han-dynasty 《列女传·齐田稷母传》: 田稷's mother tells her son 不义之财,非吾有也,不孝之子,非吾子也 - 'wealth that isn't just isn't mine; a son who isn't filial isn't my son'. One of the earliest canonical rejections of dirty money in Chinese literature.
grammar
An N1++N2 nominal phrase ('wealth of injustice'). Common collocates: , , , 拒绝, 发家 - verbs of taking, refusing, or building on.

Stroke Order

zhī
cái