Credibility Archives - understand-culture

Chasing Han Xin

Han Xin joined Liu Bang’s army but held only a minor post. He talked often with the chancellor Xiao He, who thought him remarkable. At Nanzheng, dozens of officers deserted, and Han Xin left too. Xiao He rode after him without telling Liu Bang. Back in camp, he told the angry king: “Generals are easy to find. As for Han Xin, he is guoshi wushuang, without equal in the realm.”

Liu Bang offered to make Han Xin a general. Xiao He said that would not keep him. Liu Bang agreed to make him grand general, with an altar and a ceremony on a chosen day. “The generals were all pleased, each thinking he would be grand general. When the appointment came, it was Han Xin, and the whole army was astonished.” (Records of the Grand Historian)

The Letter to Han of Jingzhou

In a letter to Han Chaozong of Jingzhou, the poet Li Bai quoted a saying of the scholars of his day: sheng bu yong feng wanhu hou, dan yuan yi shi Han Jingzhou. “In life, there is no need to be made a lord of ten thousand households. One only wishes to know Han of Jingzhou.”

People’s Daily dates the letter to 734, when Li Bai was 34 and living in Anlu. He asked Han to recommend him for office. The letter brought him neither a post nor a meeting.

Old Friend of the Chinese People

On July 20, 2023, Xi Jinping received Henry Kissinger in Beijing. “You have visited China more than a hundred times,” he said.

After Kissinger’s death in November 2023, the Foreign Ministry called him “an old friend and good friend of the Chinese people, a pioneer and builder of China-US relations.” People’s Daily quoted the same formula. The Foreign Ministry added: “The Chinese people value feeling and loyalty. We will not forget old friends.”

The Head as a Pledge

In the Water Margin, Lin Chong comes to Liangshan to join the outlaws. Zhu Gui explains the rule to him: “Whenever a hero joins, he must hand in a toumingzhuang. He goes down the mountain, kills a man and presents the head. Then there is no suspicion of him. This is called a toumingzhuang.” The leader Wang Lun gives Lin Chong three days to bring one.

Sayings on Familiarity

一回生，二回熟 Strangers the first time, acquaintances the second. The Handian dictionary explains: at the first meeting people feel like strangers, at the next meeting they know each other. Its example comes from Zhou Libo’s novel The Hurricane: “We were strangers the first time, and now we know each other. Be sure to drop in.”

多个朋友多条路 One more friend, one more road.

Letters of Introduction

In the early 1980s, a traveler needed a jieshaoxin, a letter of introduction from a public body, to stay at a guesthouse. Without one, a person could not get a room and might even be detained as a mangliu, a drifter, and sent home. From the 1990s on, people gradually stopped needing such letters to check in.

Taking Seats at Liangshan

Chapter 71 of the Water Margin is titled “In the Hall of Loyalty, a stone tablet receives a text from Heaven. The heroes of Liangshan take their places in order.” The tablet sets out the names of the 108 heroes.

The text reads: “Now the number is complete. Heaven has fixed the places in two grades, large and small. The tiangang and disha stars have all been given their order.” Song Jiang stands first.

Calling the Supervisor Boss

Many Chinese graduate students call their supervisor laoban, boss. In an essay, the philosopher Zhou Guoping called this “a fairly common phenomenon” in Chinese universities. A supervisor becomes a boss, he wrote, “first through the power to decide whether a student can graduate, and second through the funds in his hands.”

In June 2026, the Beijing News reported a survey in which more than half of the respondents wanted their supervisors to be more like supporters than traditional bosses.

The Bund Speech

On October 24, 2020, Jack Ma spoke at the second Bund Finance Summit in Shanghai. He criticized the way finance was regulated. “Good innovation is not afraid of regulation,” he said, “but it is afraid of yesterday’s regulation.”

On November 2, the central bank and three other financial regulators held a regulatory interview with Ma and with Ant Group’s chairman and president. On the evening of November 3, Ant Group’s listing on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, planned for November 5, was put on hold.

The Order of the Standing Committee

In official lists, the ordinary members of the Politburo appear in the order of the number of strokes in their surnames. The members of its Standing Committee do not. Their order, Southern Weekend wrote in 2013, is tied to “their division of work and their seniority in the Party.”

The paper added: “Although the ranking of leaders carries important political information, there is no written rule for it.”