meaning of 禄蠹?

[Lu]

It's from a puppetry piece called Zhong Kui Gets Drunk 钟馗醉酒. At some point, Zhong Kui says:

淫妇偏立贞节坊

禄蠹从来貌岸然

可恼呀

'A loose woman pretending to be honourable

A ludu??? that always looks solemn/serious

It's terrible/bad'

Anyone know what 禄蠹 is? I found it in Baidu but don't understand the explanation there.

Thanks for any help!

[Jialihai Jiejie]

禄蠹 = One who cares about fame and wealth.

Jialihai Jiejie

[vampire]

corrupt officials or something like that

the first two lines are talking about the same thing -- bad guys usually pretend they are good guys

[leeyah]

两位都对

禄蠹 means: person who is after position and wealth ( 追求功名利禄的人)

ambitious & greedy

岸然 is from 道貌岸然 meaning hypocrite, one who assumes the guise of a man of integrity

[Lu]

Thanks all. In the end, I translated:

A loose woman who pretends to be virtuous

A profiteer who pretends to be upright

I can't bear it

(I wanted to translate 淫妇 as slut but resisted the urge :-) )

[chenpv]

I second vampire's understanding. '禄'，salary here is used to refer to 'officials' in general in the same way that 'cop/ copper button' for 'police officers' in English. '蠹' is worms. The worms of all officials, namely, dirty officials, who can be either morally corrupted, or sexually loose, or cruel to the people, or bribed etc. etc. all kinds of them, not exclusively related to money.

Btw, being 'after fame and wealth' is not all a crime per se, but what Chinese government is promoting since 1978, isn't it? If those who are 'after fame and wealth' are considered as "禄蠹"，can anybody even imagine 1.3 billion of them in a nation? No way, not a chance. We have chinese characteristic, not deviation in route.

Edited October 10, 2008 at 03:36 PM by chenpv

[Lu]

being 'after fame and wealth' is not all a crime per se

Actually that is mostly what I didn't understand in the dictionary explanation: how is it bad to strive for success and money? don't we all? But from the context it's clear that 禄蠹 is supposed to be a very bad thing.

[imron]

how is it bad to strive for success and money?

See the recent milk problem for one reason how striving for money above other things can be bad.

[HashiriKata]

"禄蠹" may be the ancient equivalent of the modern corporate " rats"?

[Lu]

And so a centuries-old Fujianese puppet theater can suddenly take a very modern meaning :-)

So the not-for-actual-use-in-supertitles translation would be:

A slut who pretends to be virtuous

A corporate rat who pretends to be upright

I can't bear it