裹秆草埋老头？

[Lu]

In the book I'm currently translating, I've run across another expression (?) that mystifies me.

An official, a 常委, wants to get a promotion to become 副院长. Unfortunately for him, 30 others, all 厅长, also want the same promotion (and there is only one spot). They all spend money and gifts and 拍马屁 of the person in charge. This goes on for six months. The other contenders can still go on, but this official has pretty much spent it all.
但已送出一些钱，如副院长到头来落到别人头上，他的钱就等于白送了；名义上，专委又比庭长高，到头来让一个庭长成了自己的领导，丢的就不仅是个职务，而是裹秆草埋老头，丢了个大人；[official]又有些不甘心。

My language partner was equally mystified and speculated that perhaps it meant it would be like burying someone in straw instead of a casket. Still didn't make much sense. My best guess is that it has to go with major loss of face (丢个大人), but I suspect this might be at least half wrong.

Does anyone know, or have a clue on how to interpret this? I googled to no avail. Thanks for any help!

[skylee]

I think it is a 歇後語 ~

老頭 = father

大人 = father

裹稈草埋老頭 = wrap the father with straw and bury him

= 丟了個大人 = have the father thrown away

= 丟（了個大）人 = lose face badly

Because 丟人 = lose face

PS - I am not sure if 裹稈草 is the name of a thing (I know 禾稈草 but not 裹稈草). I interpret it as 裹+稈草.

[carlo]

From 中華諺語志 (searchable on Google Books), listed under 丟面子、難堪：

 

「乾草捆老頭 －丟了大人。山東鄆城。小孩死，多以禾草捆紮，丟到亂葬崗上，乃轉而為此喻。」

 

A pretty interesting derivation!

[Lu]

Thanks so much, skylee and carlo! Now it makes sense. So basically it's a wordplay expression, meaning, in the end, 'major loss of face'.

Skylee, I also read it as 裹 秆草, 'wrap in straw'.

Carlo, funny that it's from Shandong. It's not specified in the book where the story takes place, but it's likely Henan and certainly not Shandong (as some of the characters go away to Shandong at some point).

And now I'll have to think of a translation. I think I recently said I like translating puns :-/

[anonymoose]

Do you think it's Henan because that's where Liu Zhenyun (the author) is from?

[Lu]

Yes, that's the main reason. Henan also fits with the place's distance from other, named, places in the book, and some other works by Liu Zhenyun also take place in Henan (including this book's 'sister work' 一句顶一万句). I can't be sure of course, but it's not really that important whether it really is Henan.