# 不可救药

bù kě jiù yào

Seem beyond remedy or correction

## Meaning & wording

**Literally:** No medicine can save it

**Traditional Chinese:** 不可救藥

**Register:** Severe · general

[Change & possibility](https://chinese-idioms.yudis.dev/idioms/topics/change)

## When to use it

Strongly condemn a severe habit or situation.

Often exaggerates and can unfairly label a person.

## Understanding the expression

Medicine normally offers a chance to improve illness, but the phrase denies that any remedy can work. Modern use often condemns stubborn faults, hopeless systems, or behavior that repeatedly resists correction. It is a severe and sometimes exaggerated judgment. Applied to a person, it can shut down hope and dialogue. Describing the specific harmful behavior is usually more precise than declaring the whole person beyond all possibility of change.

## Examples

他觉得这套制度不可救药。

### Traditional Chinese

他覺得這套制度不可救藥。

tā jué de zhè tào zhì dù bù kě jiù yào 。

He thinks this system is beyond repair.

老师没有把学生说成不可救药。

### Traditional Chinese

老師沒有把學生說成不可救藥。

lǎo shī méi yǒu bǎ xué shēng shuō chéng bù kě jiù yào 。

The teacher did not call the student beyond correction.

她笑说自己的迷路本领不可救药。

### Traditional Chinese

她笑說自己的迷路本領不可救藥。

tā xiào shuō zì jǐ de mí lù běn lǐng bù kě jiù yào 。

She joked that her tendency to get lost was incurable.

反复造假让人认为公司不可救药。

### Traditional Chinese

反覆造假讓人認為公司不可救藥。

fǎn fù zào jiǎ ràng rén rèn wéi gōng sī bù kě jiù yào 。

Repeated falsification made people think the company could not be fixed.

## Sources & reference checks

Original explanations and examples from Chinese Idioms Almanac. Source-checked October 6, 2026.

- [CC-CEDICT · forms & pronunciation](https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdqb=%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%AF%E6%95%91%E8%97%A5)

- [Ministry of Education · 成語典](https://dict.idioms.moe.edu.tw/idiomView.jsp?ID=168&webMd=1&la=0)

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