In November 2020, the term Fanersai wenxue, Versailles literature, went viral on Chinese social media. The name comes from the Japanese manga The Rose of Versailles. It describes posts that “first lower, then raise,” pretending to complain while really showing off. The Paper defined it as “a way of speaking that shows off in a low-key manner.”
On December 4, 2020, the language magazine Yaowen Jiaozi named it one of the ten top buzzwords of the year.
While Liu Bei was stationed at Xinye, he asked the scholar Sima Hui, known as Mr. Water Mirror, about the affairs of the age. Sima Hui answered: “Here there are the Sleeping Dragon and the Young Phoenix.” He meant Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he adds that whoever wins one of the two can bring peace to the realm.
In 1057, Ouyang Xiu was in charge of the imperial examination in which Su Shi and his brother passed. After reading Su Shi’s writing, Ouyang wrote to the poet Mei Yaochen: “Reading Shi’s writing, I broke into a sweat without noticing. What joy! What joy! This old man should step out of the road and let him rise a head above the rest. How delightful! How delightful!”
For decades, Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei rarely spoke to the press. In June 2014, he met the Chinese media for the first time, and a business site called him “the always mysterious and low-key founder of Huawei.” He told the reporters: “I meet the media because the public relations department forces me to.”
According to a CCTV count, he gave no more than ten media interviews in 31 years.
On December 24, 1990, Deng Xiaoping spoke to leading officials about foreign policy. Some Third World countries, he said, wanted China to lead them. “But we must never take the lead. This is a basic state policy. We cannot afford to lead, and we are not strong enough. Taking the lead brings no benefit at all, and we would lose much of our room to act.”
The formula taoguang yanghui, hide one’s brightness and bide one’s time, is often credited to Deng. There is no clear evidence that he used it himself.
The Liyun chapter of the Book of Rites describes the age of the Great Way: da dao zhi xing ye, tianxia wei gong, xuan xian yu neng, jiang xin xiu mu. “When the Great Way prevailed, the world was shared by all. The worthy and the able were chosen. Trust was upheld and harmony cultivated.”
The Poems of the Child Prodigy, a primer traditionally credited to the Song scholar Wang Zhu, contains these lines: “The Son of Heaven values heroes. Writing is what he teaches all of you. All other callings are low. Only reading stands high.”
Another of its lines is zhao wei tianshe lang, mu deng tianzi tang. “In the morning a farm boy, in the evening in the hall of the Son of Heaven.” One account says that tutors compiled the book from Wang Zhu’s short poems.
In Wu Jingzi’s novel The Scholars, Fan Jin has failed the examinations for decades. When at last he passes the provincial exam, he loses his mind with joy. His father-in-law, the butcher Hu, who has always mocked him, is talked into slapping him back to his senses.
Now the butcher calls him xianxu laoye, “my worthy son-in-law, sir,” and says he is the Star of Literature come down to earth. The local gentry send silver and a house.
On the evening of October 16, 2010, a 22-year-old student, Li Qiming, drove a car into two female students on the campus of Hebei University in Baoding. One died, and the other was injured. When he was stopped, he said: “Sue me if you dare. My dad is Li Gang.” His father was a deputy director of a public security bureau in Baoding.
On January 30, 2011, a court sentenced Li Qiming to six years in prison. Wo ba shi Li Gang became a sarcastic catchphrase.
On December 3, 1931, Mei Yiqi gave his inaugural speech as president of Tsinghua University. One sentence from it is still quoted: suowei daxue zhe, fei wei you dalou zhi wei ye, you dashi zhi wei ye. “What is called a university is so called not because it has great buildings, but because it has great masters.”