铁打的衙门，流水的官
tiě​dǎ​de​yá​men​liú​shuǐ​de​guān

officials come and go

  • created sense approved 铁打的衙门，流水的官/鐵打的衙門，流水的官 · tiě​dǎ​de​yá​men​liú​shuǐ​de​guān · officials come and go — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    铁打的衙门，流水的官 / 鐵打的衙門，流水的官

    tiě​dǎ​de​yá​men​liú​shuǐ​de​guān

    officials come and go

    Literally "the government office is made of iron, while the officials flow through like water"; used to describe how institutions remain stable while their staff and leadership are constantly changing.

    铁打 (literal) → 铁打/鐵打 · tiě​dǎ · strong as iron 的 (literal) → 的 · de · [possessive/attributive] 衙门 (literal) → 衙门/衙門 · yá​men · government office ， (non_chinese) 流水 (literal) → 流水 · liú​shuǐ · continuous 的 (literal) → 的 · de · [possessive/attributive] 官 (literal) → 官 · guān · official

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense