Daily Chinese Proverb: Commitment? - 'When The Tree Falls, The Monkeys Scatter'

Posted by Charlie @ Discovering Mandarin Saturday 15 August 2009
When a leader loses power, their followers become disorganised and often lose faith in the cause. The following phrase is now used to refer to people who ditch a lost cause because they weren't committed to it. The creators of a cause would however try and keep the cause afloat whereas the followers just there for the ride would just ditch it.

This proverb is likely to be used to describe fair weather friends, although in both cases is applicable.

树倒猢狲散
shù dǎo hú sūn sàn
When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter


More often in English, this proverbs meaning would be conveyed in the following proverb:

Like rats desert a sinking ship.

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