铁 打 的 衙 门，流 水 的 官

tiě dǎ de yá men , liú shuǐ de guāndictionary entry

lit. the yamen is strong as iron, the officials flow like water (idiom) / fig. government officials come and go

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-f34c443c0b0c913a. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

鐵打的衙門，流水的官 铁打的衙门，流水的官 [tie3 da3 de5 ya2 men5 , liu2 shui3 de5 guan1] /lit. the yamen is strong as iron, the officials flow like water (idiom)/fig. government officials come and go/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 鐵打的衙門，流水的官

铁
tiě
iron (metal) / arms / weapons / hard / strong / violent / unshakeable / determined / close / tight (slang)
Tiě
surname Tie
打
dá
(loanword) dozen / Taiwan pr. [dǎ]
dǎ
to hit / to strike / to fight / (in many expressions) a semantically light transitive verb used with various objects to form expressions with a wide range of meanings, e.g. 打傘|打伞[dǎ sǎn] "to hold an umbrella", 打電話|打电话[dǎ diàn huà] "to make a phone call", 打針|打针[dǎ zhēn] "to get an injection" / (coll.) from / since
的
de
of / ~'s (possessive particle) / (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun) / (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis) / (used after a noun, verb or adjective to form a nominal expression, as in 皮革的[pí gé de] "one made of leather" or 跑堂兒的|跑堂儿的[pǎo táng r de] "a waiter (literally, one who runs back and forth in a restaurant)" or 新的[xīn de] "new one") / also pr. [dì] or [di] in poetry and songs
dī
(bound form) a taxi / a cab (abbr. for 的士[dī shì])
dí
really and truly
dì
(bound form) bull's-eye / target
衙
yá
office / yamen 衙門|衙门
Yá
surname Ya
门
mén
gate / door / doorway / gateway / opening (CL:扇[shàn]) / valve / switch / other door-like or gate-like structure / way to do sth / knack / method / approach / family / household / lineage / (bound form) sect / school / faction (religious or academic) / (bound form) class / category / division / phylum / classifier for courses, fields of study, branches of technology, relatives by marriage, guns etc / (suffix) -gate (scandal)
Mén
surname Men
流
liú
to flow / to disseminate / to circulate or spread / to move or drift / to degenerate / to banish or send into exile / stream of water or sth resembling one / class, rate or grade
水
shuǐ
water / (after a name) ... River / to swim (used mostly in 會水|会水[huì shuǐ] and 水性[shuǐ xìng]) / (coll.) lacking in substance / shoddy / (bound form) additional cost / extra income / classifier for washings of a garment
Shuǐ
surname Shui / Shui ethnic group
的
de
of / ~'s (possessive particle) / (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun) / (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis) / (used after a noun, verb or adjective to form a nominal expression, as in 皮革的[pí gé de] "one made of leather" or 跑堂兒的|跑堂儿的[pǎo táng r de] "a waiter (literally, one who runs back and forth in a restaurant)" or 新的[xīn de] "new one") / also pr. [dì] or [di] in poetry and songs
dī
(bound form) a taxi / a cab (abbr. for 的士[dī shì])
dí
really and truly
dì
(bound form) bull's-eye / target
官
guān
government official / governmental / official / public / organ of the body / CL:個|个[gè]
Guān
surname Guan

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.