I can't understand this idiom means: Here is the idiom 晚节不保 From baidu translator: The integrity in one's later years is not protected. http://approachinese.com/dict/zh2en/晚节不保/ ; http://chengyu.t086.com/cy9/9790.html The context of this story is, Liang Jia has a family business which is real estate, the master/laoye of Liang Jia now wants to abdicate his power and gave the family business to incompetent, reckless, and not-suitable-to-run-business son, the Liang family's prince, Liang Deyou Here is the complete Chinese sentence: 梁家老爷子现在就想退位把公司交给梁家太子爷，这个决定大概会成为他晚节不保的最大证明 My attempt to translate: The Liang family's master now wants to abdicate and hand over the Liang company to the Liang prince. This decision will be the greatest proof of his integrity in his later years is not protected[2]. [2] 晚节不保 [Wǎn jíe bù bǎo]: It has to do with old age's integrity. Has reached his later years but failed to keep his moral principle/integrity. It also means that when things are going to succeed, they fail. Can someone explain what this idiom means? Did I translate it right? I can't understand how it works and how related it is in the sentence. Thanks in advance.
I think in this context the idiom has a meaning of the old man going senile of sorts. Think you can use smth like the decision to pass over the reigns to the kid as a proof that he no longer has his marbles? Or like proof that he is becoming a senile old man or smth
晚节不保 has to do with the reputation of someone's moral integrity, the keyword here is reputation. Also, 太子爷 does not literally mean 'prince'. In this case it refers to a rich man's son and could be a respectful term used by commoners/poorer folk.
From baidu, general meaning is that hes been carrying humself and making the right desicion his whole life, but as he gets older hes starting to lose touch and making wrong choices
I think the "his integrity in later years" part is a little unnecessary because it's more about him failing after years of success than his reputation being at stake from this one decision. Also, 太子爷 doesn't mean prince. It's a combination of 太子 (Crown Prince) and 爷 ( a suffix for man or rich dude - sort of like 王爷 (王= Prince/titled guy; 爷= suffix for saying this is a guy)). My try at it: The old Liang family patriarch wants to retire and pass the company on to his heir now. This decision would probably be the biggest proof of him [insert from below]. a) going senile b) losing his touch from age c) failing at the last minute d) some variation of aboe.
I think in this context, it means that it is a bad decision for him to do that succession now as it would lead to jeopardizing his business in the future. Thus, giving him a hard time later on. My go at it would be: Perhaps that decision would be the greatest proof that he would have a disastrous life when he was older.
This likely will represent the greatest evidence that (in spite of his long record of keen insight) he was unable to continue to make sound decisions in his old age. The part in parentheses is optional.
@Shibb and @bibi_tl For "太子爷 doesn't mean prince"So I don't have to translate it as Prince Liang, but just the name? or do you have any other suggestion/words in Eng that suitable for this term?
Young master, heir, successor, eldest son - that's all I can think of for now. If you wanna be ironic though, you can always do quotation marks. (e.g. "Crown Prince" of the Liang family)
He is implying that as the old master ages his judgement isn't as objective as it use to be. I would translate it as -This decision by the old (Liang) family head to step down now and hand over to the young master will probably be the best proof that his judgement isn't as unbias as it used to be.
Unfortunately there's no good options here. Anything that @Shibb mentioned would work, but it may be good to include a footnote to explain the weird usage of terms. 太子爷 is not something his own family members/people as rich as him/nobility would call him by, its kinda colloquial. In any case, I think there's a lot of room for interpretation for the later half of the sentence, because we don't know the context. I assume you have an idea already so good luck!