Definitions

1. Verb:
   • To become a mandarin/official: To enter government service by obtaining an official position in the traditional Vietnamese or Chinese bureaucratic system.
   • To serve as a mandarin/official: To hold a position as a government official in the historical administrative hierarchy.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Sau khi đỗ đạt, ông ấy về quê làm quan. (After passing the exams, he returned to his hometown to become an official.)
  • Nguyễn Trãi từng làm quan dưới triều Lê. (Nguyễn Trãi once served as an official under the Lê dynasty.)

Advanced Usage

• "làm quan tham": to be a corrupt official.
  • Kẻ làm quan tham thường bị dân chúng căm ghét. (A corrupt official is often despised by the people.)
• "con đường làm quan": the path to becoming an official.
  • Thi cử là con đường làm quan chính thống thời xưa. (Examinations were the orthodox path to becoming an official in the old days.)

Variants and Related Words

• Quan (n): mandarin, official. The core noun from which the phrase is built.
  • Vị quan thanh liêm đó được mọi người kính trọng. (That honest official is respected by everyone.)
• Quan chức (n): functionary, public servant (modern equivalent).
  • Các quan chức nhà nước phải phục vụ nhân dân. (State officials must serve the people.)

Synonyms

• Nhậm chức: to take up a post, to assume office (more formal/neutral, less historically specific).
• Giữ chức vụ: to hold a position (broader, can apply to any job title).

Related Phrases

• "Làm quan, làm dân": a phrase contrasting the roles of being an official versus being a commoner.
  • Dù làm quan hay làm dân thì cũng phải sống cho phải đạo. (Whether one is an official or a commoner, one must live rightly.)

Related Idioms

• "Làm quan có mả, làm dân có phần": An idiom suggesting that both officials and commoners have their own designated roles, benefits, and burial plots in society. It highlights the fixed social hierarchy of the past.
• "Làm quan ăn lộc vua, ở chùa ăn lộc Phật": Literally "Officials enjoy the king's bounty, monks enjoy Buddha's bounty." It means everyone depends on and is loyal to their specific patron or system.