In the Analects, the disciple Zixia says: shi er you ze xue, xue er you ze shi. “One who serves in office and has strength to spare should study. One who studies and has strength to spare should serve in office.” (Analects 19.13)
The Broken Tassels
King Zhuang of Chu gave his ministers a feast. Late in the evening, when all were drunk, the candles went out. In the dark a man pulled at the dress of one of the king’s women. She tore the tassel off his hat and told the king: “Bring the light and look for the man without a tassel.”
The king said: “I gave them wine and made them drunk. Why should I display a woman’s virtue and shame an officer?” He ordered: “Whoever drinks with me tonight and does not tear off his tassel has not enjoyed himself.” More than a hundred men tore off their tassels before the lights came back.
Three years later, in a battle against Jin, one officer always fought in front. He told the king that he was the man whose tassel had been torn off. The story is in Liu Xiang’s Garden of Stories (说苑).
The National Civil Service Exam
On November 30, 2025, candidates sat the national civil service exam for 2026. Xinhua reported that 3.718 million people had passed the employers’ qualification review. The government planned to hire 38,100. That made about 98 qualified applicants for each place.
Sayings on Face
人活脸，树活皮 A person lives by face, a tree lives by its bark. A person must guard his good name. Also 人要脸，树要皮.
打人休打脸，骂人休揭短 When hitting someone, do not hit the face. When scolding someone, do not expose his faults.
揭短 To expose a person’s shortcomings and make them public.
得饶人处且饶人 Where one can spare a person, spare him. To be tolerant and leave room. The line is from the Song writer Yao Kuan.
留余地 To leave room. Not to go to extremes in speech or action, so that there is space to turn back.
Yanzi at the Small Gate
When Yanzi of Qi went as an envoy to Chu, the people of Chu made a small door for him beside the great gate, because he was short. Yanzi would not enter. “Those sent to a country of dogs go in by the dogs’ gate. I have been sent to Chu, so I should not go in by this gate.” He was led in through the main gate.
On another visit, the King of Chu planned to humiliate him. During a banquet, officers brought in a bound man and said he was from Qi and had stolen. The king asked Yanzi: “Do the people of Qi steal by nature?”
Yanzi answered that an orange grown south of the Huai River is an orange, but grown north of it becomes a bitter orange. People of Qi do not steal at home. “Could it be that the soil and water of Chu make people good at stealing?” The king laughed: “A sage is not a man to joke with. I have brought the shame on myself.”
Talking War on Paper
Zhao Kuo, son of the Zhao general Zhao She, studied the art of war from his youth and believed that no one could match him. When he discussed war with his father, Zhao She could not refute him, but he would not call him good. “War is a place of death,” he told his wife, “and Kuo speaks of it lightly.” If Zhao ever made Kuo a general, he said, Kuo would destroy its army.
When the king gave Kuo the command against Qin, his mother wrote to the king that he must not lead. At Changping in 260 BC, Qin troops shot Kuo dead, and his surrendered army was buried alive. Sima Qian put Zhao’s total losses at 450,000. Because of her warning, the king spared his mother.
The idiom zhi shang tan bing, talking war on paper, comes from this story. Dictionaries define it as empty talk about theory that has nothing to do with reality.
Words Beyond Substance
Ma Su was highly gifted and loved to discuss military plans, and Zhuge Liang thought very highly of him. On his deathbed, Liu Bei warned Zhuge Liang: “Ma Su’s words exceed his substance. He cannot be given great tasks. Watch him.” Zhuge Liang did not agree and often talked with Ma Su from morning until night.
In 228, many urged that veteran generals such as Wei Yan lead the vanguard. Zhuge Liang gave it to Ma Su instead. At Jieting, the Wei general Zhang He routed him. Ma Su died in prison, and Zhuge Liang wept for him. (Records of the Three Kingdoms)
The phrase yan guo qi shi, words beyond substance, comes from Liu Bei’s warning. Dictionaries define its original sense as boastful words that exceed real ability.
Peach and Plum Trees Do Not Speak
The Han general Li Guang was slow of speech and said little. Sima Qian wrote: “I saw General Li. He was as plain as a country man and could not speak well. On the day he died, everyone in the realm mourned him, those who knew him and those who did not.”
Sima Qian ended his account of the general with a proverb: tao li bu yan, xia zi cheng xi. “Peach and plum trees do not speak, yet a path forms beneath them.” He added: “The saying is small, but it can explain great things.” (Records of the Grand Historian)
The Three-Nos Scientist
On October 5, 2015, the pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou was named a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work on artemisinin, a drug against malaria. She had no doctorate, had not studied abroad and was not a member of the Academy of Sciences. Chinese media had jokingly called her a sanwu scientist, a “three-nos” scientist.
Empty Talk Harms the Nation
On November 29, 2012, Xi Jinping and other leaders visited the exhibition The Road to Rejuvenation at the National Museum in Beijing. There Xi said: kongtan wu guo, shigan xing bang. “Empty talk harms the nation. Real work makes it flourish.”