升官发财
shēng guān fā cái
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 升官發財
To win promotion to higher office and grow rich. Said of official careers: sometimes as a good wish, often with disapproval of people who seek position for the sake of money.
Được thăng chức, làm quan to và trở nên giàu có. Vừa là lời chúc, vừa hay dùng với ý chê những người chạy theo chức quyền để kiếm tiền.
Register: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 062 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “thăng quan phát tài” (thang-quan-phat-tai). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “升官发财” mean?
To win promotion to higher office and grow rich. Said of official careers: sometimes as a good wish, often with disapproval of people who seek position for the sake of money. Literally: rise in office, make a fortune
Is “升官发财” formal or informal?
升官发财 is generally neutral.