树倒猢狲散

When the tree topples the monkeys scatter. (idiom); fig. an opportunist abandons an unfavorable cause / Rats leave a sinking ship.

tree / CL:棵[ke1] / to cultivate / to set up

to fall; to collapse; to lie horizontally / to fail; to go bankrupt / to overthrow / to change (trains or buses) / to move around / to resell at a profit

to invert; to place upside down or frontside back / to pour out / to tip out; to dump / inverted; upside down; reversed / to go backward / contrary to what one might expect; but; yet

monkey

macaque

(monkey)

variant of 散[san4]

scattered / loose / to come loose / to fall apart / leisurely / powdered medicine

to scatter / to break up (a meeting etc) / to disperse / to disseminate / to dispel / (coll.) to sack