năm quan mua người, mười quan mua nết
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Money can buy people, but more money is needed to buy manners
Literally: five coins buy people, ten coins buy behavior
Examples
Tiền nhiều thì dễ năm quan mua người, mười quan mua nếtWith a lot of money, it's easy to buy people and manners
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “năm quan mua người, mười quan mua nết” mean?
Money can buy people, but more money is needed to buy manners Literally: five coins buy people, ten coins buy behavior
Is “năm quan mua người, mười quan mua nết” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.