腰缠万贯

腰纏萬貫
yāochán-wànguàn
idiom #31,657

Meanings

  1. 1 extremely wealthy
  2. 2 rolling in money
  3. 3 lit. ten thousand strings of cash wrapped around the waist

Examples

HSK 2
Yāochánwànguàn yě mǎi búdào jiànkāng.
Even immense wealth cannot buy health.
HSK 3
Tā niánjì qīngqīng jiù yāochánwànguàn.
He's already rolling in money at a young age.

Tips

history
From 《小说》 by Yin Yun (殷芸) of the Liang Dynasty: a story where guests share their wishes - to be governor of Yangzhou, to be rich, to fly on a crane to heaven - until one greedy guest declares 腰缠十万贯,骑鹤上扬州 ('with 100,000 strings of cash on my belt, I'll fly on a crane to Yangzhou'), wishing for all three at once. A was a string of 1,000 copper coins, so 万贯 = 10 million coins.
memory
Picture the literal image: (waist) + (wrap) + 万贯 (ten thousand strings of cash). Before paper money, Chinese coins had square holes and were strung on cords - a wealthy traveler literally wore his fortune around his waist.

Stroke Order

yāo
chán
wàn
guàn