Chinese idiom · 成语
攀高结贵
Meaning
To climb high and ally with nobles; to seek elite connections.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary narrativeIn chapter 17 of Wu Jingzi's Rulin Waishi, Kuang Chaoren's dying father warns his sons that moral conduct matters more than examination success or wealth. Addressing Kuang, he says that improved circumstances must not make him snobbish. After the mourning period, he should choose a wife without seeking riches or powerful relatives. The father uses 攀高结贵 to condemn that kind of advantageous social climbing.
The passage gives the expression a clear moral contrast: sincere relationships and character on one side, attachment to rank on the other. It is a literary attestation of the phrase, not proof that the novelist first invented it.
In everyday life
他参加聚会只是为了攀高结贵，根本不关心老朋友。
He goes to gatherings only to cultivate powerful connections and has no real interest in old friends.
Critical of status-seeking motives, not of meeting successful people in itself.