In 816, Bai Juyi wrote the long poem Song of the Pipa (琵琶行). He had been demoted the year before to a post at Jiujiang. In the poem, a woman from the capital plays the pipa on a boat at night. Her music slows, the strings seem to freeze, and the sound stops for a moment.
Bai writes: “A hidden sorrow and a secret grief arise. At this moment, silence is better than sound.” (别有幽愁暗恨生，此时无声胜有声) Then the music bursts out again, like a silver jar breaking.
The Twenty-Four Categories of Poetry (二十四诗品) describes twenty-four styles of poetry. One of them is called Implicitness (含蓄). It contains the line 不著一字，尽得风流: “Without writing a single word, it captures all the grace.”
The book is traditionally attributed to the Tang poet Sikong Tu. In 1995, the scholars Chen Shangjun and Wang Yonghao argued that it appears in the records only after the Yuan dynasty and was probably not written by him.
In a story told in Chan Buddhism, the Buddha once held up a flower before the assembly on Vulture Peak. Everyone was silent and did not understand. Only his disciple Mahakashyapa smiled. The Buddha then said that he would entrust his true teaching to Mahakashyapa, “not founded on words, a separate transmission outside the scriptures” (不立文字，教外别传).
The earliest known version of the story dates from 1036. The words “a separate transmission outside the scriptures, not founded on words” became a motto of Chan.
The Spring and Autumn Annals record in one line that “the Earl of Zheng overcame Duan at Yan” (郑伯克段于鄢). Duan was the earl’s younger brother.
The classical commentaries read meaning into the wording. The Zuo Commentary says that Duan “did not act as a younger brother, so he is not called brother. They fought like two rulers, so it says overcame.” The Gongyang Commentary asks: “If he killed him, why does it say overcame? To magnify the Earl of Zheng’s evil.”
Passing judgment through the way an event is worded is called Spring and Autumn brushwork (春秋笔法).
In the Analects, Confucius describes a man of real standing. Such a man “examines words and observes the face, and thinks of putting himself below others” (察言而观色，虑以下人).
The phrase lives on as the idiom 察言观色. The Handian dictionary defines it as “observing a person’s words and expression in order to work out what the person has in mind.”
A short passage in the Analects tells how a man named Ru Bei wanted to see Confucius. Confucius declined, saying that he was ill. As the messenger was going out of the door, Confucius took up his zither and sang, “so that Ru Bei would hear it” (使之闻之).
A joke published by China Daily in 2017 turns on the word 意思. The Handian dictionary gives it meanings that include meaning, intention and a small token of appreciation. The joke is a conversation between a boss and an employee.
Boss: 你这是什么意思？ What do you mean by this? Employee: 没什么意思，意思意思。 It means nothing. It is just a little something. Boss: 你这就不够意思了。 That is not very decent of you. Employee: 小意思，小意思。 It is only a small token.
言外之意 The meaning outside the words. A meaning that is implied but not stated clearly.
弦外之音 The sound beyond the strings. Originally the lingering sound of music. Today a meaning that comes through indirectly in what is said.
心照不宣 Hearts reflect each other, nothing is declared. Both sides understand, and there is no need to say it.
拐弯抹角 To turn bends and go around corners. To speak without coming straight to the point.
软钉子 A soft nail. A refusal or criticism made in a gentle, roundabout way.
旁敲侧击 To knock at the side and strike from the flank. To make a point indirectly, without stating it.
指桑骂槐 To point at the mulberry and curse the locust tree. To seem to blame one person while really blaming another.
你是个好人 “You are a good person.” Since the 1990s, this has been a common way to turn down a suitor, often followed by “I believe you can find someone better than me.” The phrase spread from online forums in Taiwan.
Internet slang calls it receiving a 好人卡, a “good-person card.” To refuse a suitor gently is 发卡, to hand out a card.