Chinese idiom · 成语
入不敷出
Meaning
Income fails to cover expenses; financial strain.
Character by character
Origin and story
Historical usageThis is financial language: what comes in is insufficient to cover what goes out. A documented occurrence is in the Qing scholar Zhu Yizun's Zhucha Shihua, discussing the Ming official Ni Jiaqing. Zhu recalls Ni's warning that state expenditure exceeded revenue and that the annual deficit was substantial. He regrets that the advice was not accepted and suggests better planning might have delayed the dynasty's danger.
That final judgment is Zhu's retrospective assessment, not proof of one simple cause of Ming collapse. The idiom itself needs no financial legend. It can describe a household, business, or state whose expenses exceed its income.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
房租涨了以后，我每个月都入不敷出，只好重新安排开销。
After the rent increase, my monthly expenses exceeded my income, so I had to reorganize my spending.
A mismatch of income and expenditure; not necessarily a moral criticism.