祿山之爪 vs. 鹹豬手 (slang)

I read on the paper that a man on the bus had reached out his hand to a girl sexually harassing her. The girl yelled at him so that the bus driver drove the bus directly to a police station and had the man arrested. I applauded for the girl and the bus driver.

If such a thing happened one or two decades ago, I believe the reporter would describe the incident as “無聊男子亂伸祿山之爪(lu4 shan zhi zhua3.” But these days the reporter would more likely choose the term鹹豬手(xian2 zhu shou3), which is not so classical but a more modern usage.

To realize the term祿山之爪, you got to start from one of the four most famed beauties in the Chinese history, 楊貴妃(yang2 gui4 fei), which I had introduced in my previous writing “Angelina Jolie would be ugly.” It is said that Yang, though being the beloved consort of Emperor Xuangzong, had an affair with 安祿山(an lu4 shan), An Lushan, a general of Sogdian and Tujue origin who later rebelled against the Tang Dynasty. Once her breasts were bruised by An’s hands that she had to put on a piece of cloth to cover them, which is said to be the origin of 肚兜(du4 dou), bellyband, or ancient version of bra.  

Thus came the term祿山之爪. 爪usually refers to animal’s claws. Here it refers to a man’s hands that reach out to a woman’s breasts.

But these days the term has been replaced more and more often by鹹豬手, which literally means “salty pig’s hand.” The usage of “pig” is understandable since it’s always been a metaphor for lecherous perverts in the Chinese language if you have some knowledge about the classical novel 西遊記, Journey to the West, which I’ve talked a little about before.

As to the word salty, a theory is that it comes from Cantonese. I remember writing about calling a porn 鹹濕片(xian2 shi pian4) showing the implicative meaning of the word 鹹, salty. Some people say in Cantonese a pervert can be called鹹濕佬(xian2 shi lao3), which is probably why 祿山之爪is also called鹹豬手today.

A student of mine shouted and called for her boss at a Internet café, where she works during the days when a 鹹濕佬sexually harassed her for the second time the other day. They called the police and the pervert never dares to show up again. I applaud for her too.

鹹豬手=咸猪手

楊貴妃=杨贵妃