不行
bù xíng · HSK 2
be no good
🚫 不 (not) + 行 (go/work) = won't work / no good
行 means to go or to be OK/workable, so 不行 literally negates it: not going, not workable. Common refusal — pairs with 可以 (kěyǐ, OK) as its opposite.
不 — single pictograph; bird flying upward
Originally a pictograph in oracle bone script, traditionally interpreted as a bird flying up toward the sky and unable to come down, suggesting negation or refusal. Over time it became the standard negation word in Chinese, used before verbs and adjectives to mean 'not'.
行 — crossroads pictograph (left 彳 + right 亍)
行 originally pictured a four-way crossroads in oracle bone script, with two paths meeting. From 'road' it extended to 'walk, go, travel,' and then to 'a row, line' or 'business firm' (read háng). The two halves 彳 and 亍 are the split sides of that ancient crossroads.