"Salty Pig Hand" (Hum ju sow) - part 3

See part 1 & part 2.

My quest for the origins of the "salty pig's hand" phrase has drawn a blank so far.

AND THEN, QQ*Librarian sent me a link to a Chinese webpage 咸猪手是什么意思 which had this origin story that sounded too 'clean' and artistic to be true (translation courtesy of QQ*Librarian, coz' my Chinese is rusty):


This story was cited in several websites. It started from a story about a man called Lu You who married Tang Wan. The two people spent their days idling after their marriage. The mother was very angry and forced Lu You to divorce Tang Wan. Tang Wan later married another man. One day, Lu You returned and Tang Wan, with her husband's permission, prepared food and wine in the garden to entertain Lu You. Lu You composed a poem beginning with "xian zhu shou" (salty pig's trotters). Later, Tang Wan changed certain words in the poem.

QQ also noted that this webpage didn't explain further how this poem ended up becoming to mean lecherous men. But it appears that one's mood affects one's interpretation of things. So "salty pig's trotters" is meant to refer to something disgusting or negative.