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Let It Begin With Me

When the Hundred Days’ Reform failed in 1898, Liang Qichao took refuge in the Japanese legation and urged Tan Sitong to escape with him. Tan refused. “In every country, reform has come through bloodshed. In China, no one has yet been heard to shed blood for reform, and that is why the country does not prosper. If someone must, let it begin with me.”

While awaiting execution, he is said to have written a poem with the line “I draw my sword and laugh toward heaven.” The diary of Tang Xuan, an official of the Board of Punishments at the time, records slightly different wording.

Time Is Money

In March 1981, Yuan Geng, head of the Shekou Industrial Zone in Shenzhen, wrote the slogan “Time is money, efficiency is life.” It brought him heavy criticism. Critics called him “a capitalist who wants money and lives” and spoke of “the restoration of capitalism.” The giant billboard was put up in Shekou and taken down several times.

In January 1984, Deng Xiaoping endorsed the slogan on his first visit to Shenzhen. On October 1, 1984, it rode past Tiananmen on the Shekou float in the National Day parade.

Sayings on Renewal

苟日新，日日新，又日新 If new for one day, then new day after day, and new again. The inscription on the bathing basin of King Tang, quoted in the Great Learning.

穷则变，变则通，通则久 When things reach their limit, they change. Change opens a way through, and a way through lasts. From the Book of Changes.

与时俱进 To advance with the times. Reports on the 16th Party Congress in November 2002 said that its revision of the Party Constitution carried the spirit of advancing with the times.

Young China

On February 10, 1900, Liang Qichao published “On Young China” in the journal Qingyi Bao. “Today’s responsibility lies not with others but entirely with our youth,” he wrote. “If the youth are wise, the nation is wise. If the youth are rich, the nation is rich. If the youth are strong, the nation is strong.”

Two-Faced People

Article 51 of the Communist Party’s Regulations on Disciplinary Action, in their 2018 version, punishes members who are disloyal and dishonest toward the Party, “are one thing outside and another inside, comply in public and defy in secret, and deceive those above and below.” The Party calls such a member a 两面人, a two-faced person.

In January 2026, Xi Jinping described such people to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Some, he said, “state their position very quickly and in a very high key” on carrying out the Party’s major decisions, “but in fact comply in public and defy in secret.”

Double Reduction

On July 24, 2021, the General Offices of the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued the “double reduction” opinions on homework and off-campus tutoring. Existing tutoring companies for school subjects had to register as non-profit organizations. They could no longer raise capital on stock markets. No new ones would be approved.

Chinese Wikipedia sums up the effect: the policy “dealt a severe blow to the private education industry in mainland China.”

Leaders’ Written Instructions

In Chinese government, a leader’s short written comment on a report or document is called a pishi (批示), a written instruction. It turns the document into a task for the people below.

In 2016, Xi Jinping wrote such an instruction on the study of Mao Zedong’s essay on the working methods of Party committees. The Central Organization Department then issued a notice to carry it out. According to the Party’s news site, the instruction set clear requirements for every member of every Party leadership team, and especially for its principal leaders.

Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones

摸着石头过河, “to cross the river by feeling for the stones,” comes from a folk saying. Chen Yun, then vice premier, first proposed it as a working method at a government meeting in April 1950. In 1961 he told the Ministry of Chemical Industry that the work must start from reality and “cross the river by feeling the stones.”

The saying is widely linked to Deng Xiaoping and the reforms after 1978. According to scholars cited by Chinese Wikipedia, Deng himself never used it.

Tolerating Errors

In 2016, Xi Jinping called for “three distinctions.” Mistakes made in reform through lack of experience or bold trials should be distinguished from knowing violations. Errors in experiments not yet forbidden should be distinguished from defiance of clear bans. Unintentional faults made to promote development should be distinguished from violations for private gain.

In May 2018, the General Office of the Central Committee issued an opinion to set up mechanisms for tolerating and correcting errors (容错纠错). Officials who miss a target but break no rule and seek no private gain are not to be judged negatively.