Indirect Signals Archives - understand-culture

The Vocabulary of Hints

指桑骂槐 Point at the mulberry and curse the locust tree. To scold one person while really aiming at another.

旁敲侧击 Knock at the side, strike from the flank. To make a point indirectly instead of stating it.

话里有话 Words inside the words. A remark that carries a hidden meaning.

弦外之音 The sound beyond the string. Originally the lingering note of a piece of music. Today a meaning that is not said but can be understood.

含沙射影 Hold sand in the mouth and shoot at a shadow. From a legend about a water creature that spat sand at people’s shadows and made them ill. Today, to attack someone by innuendo.

A Frank Exchange of Views

In Chinese diplomatic reports, a meeting at which the two sides “had a frank exchange” (进行了坦率交流) is understood to mean that they disagreed seriously.

In a 2022 article on diplomatic language, the scholar Wang Yizhou explains this reading. He also lists other phrases that take the place of plain words in diplomacy: “concern,” “serious concern,” “deep unease,” “great regret,” “strong dissatisfaction” and “severe condemnation.”

One Word in the Spring and Autumn Annals

The Spring and Autumn Annals records a war between the ruler of Zheng and his younger brother Duan in one line: 郑伯克段于鄢, “The Earl of Zheng overcame Duan at Yan.”

The Zuo Commentary explains the words. Duan is not called the younger brother, because he did not act as one. The verb 克, “overcame,” is used because the brothers fought like two rulers. The ruler is called only “the Earl of Zheng” as a reproach, because he failed to teach his brother.

Chinese calls this way of passing judgment through word choice 春秋笔法, the brush of the Spring and Autumn Annals. The dictionary defines it as praise and blame hidden in indirect wording.

The Banquet at Hongmen

At the banquet at Hongmen in 206 BCE, Xiang Yu received his rival Liu Bang. Xiang Yu’s adviser Fan Zeng wanted Liu Bang killed. The Records of the Grand Historian says that Fan Zeng “looked at Xiang Yu again and again, and three times raised the jade ornament he wore to show it to him.” Xiang Yu “was silent and did not respond.”

Fan Zeng then sent in Xiang Zhuang to perform a sword dance and strike Liu Bang during it. Liu Bang’s adviser Zhang Liang saw the plan: “Xiang Zhuang is dancing with his sword, and his aim is always at Liu Bang.”

The idiom 项庄舞剑，意在沛公, Xiang Zhuang dances with the sword but aims at Liu Bang, describes words or acts that look proper but are aimed at someone else.

Daiyu’s Handwarmer

In chapter 8 of Dream of the Red Chamber, Baoyu wants to drink his wine cold. Baochai tells him that cold wine harms the body and that he must stop drinking it cold. He obeys at once. Just then Lin Daiyu’s maid Xueyan brings her a small handwarmer. Daiyu asks who sent it. Xueyan says that Zijuan was afraid her mistress was cold.

Daiyu takes it and says with a smile: “How good of you to listen to her. What I tell you, you treat as wind past your ears. When she tells you something, you obey faster than an imperial edict.” The novel adds: “Baoyu heard this and knew that Daiyu was using it to mock him.” He had no answer and only laughed.

Seeing the Guest Out

The Chinese dictionary Handian gives two meanings for 送客, to see a guest out. The first is to see a visitor off. The second is that “the host signals that the guest should leave.”

Its example comes from chapter 49 of the novel A Brief History of Enlightenment (文明小史): “When he had finished speaking, he raised his teacup, and someone beside him called out: ‘See the guest out!'”

The King Looked Left and Right

Mencius asked King Xuan of Qi about a man who left his wife and children in a friend’s care and traveled to Chu. On his return he found them cold and hungry. What should he do? “Break with the friend,” said the king. What if the chief judge could not keep his officers in order? “Dismiss him,” said the king.

Then Mencius asked: “If the land within the four borders is not well governed, what then?” The text continues: 王顾左右而言他, “The king looked to his left and right and spoke of other things.”

Noted

In 2005, the National Palace Museum in Taipei held an exhibition. The cover of its guidebook showed a reply by the Kangxi Emperor in red ink, in Manchu and Chinese. It had three characters: 知道了, “noted.”

A company later added 朕, the word an emperor used for “I,” and printed the phrase on masking tape: 朕知道了, “We have noted it.” The tape went on sale in July 2013. By December 2014, more than 200,000 rolls had been sold, according to People’s Daily. An early buyer wrote that it was for use when the boss’s tasks were annoying.

Words for Later

再说 Let’s talk about it later. Literally “speak again.” Used to put a decision off.

从长计议 To plan for the long term. Not to decide now.

好说 Easy to discuss. A modest, polite phrase. It can also mean “that can be arranged.”

推三阻四 To push three and block four. To give one excuse after another.

敷衍 To deal with something only on the surface.