Credibility Archives - Page 7 of 8

Mi Heng Plays the Drum

According to the Book of the Later Han, Mi Heng “had talent and eloquence from his youth, but he was proud and harsh and liked to defy his times and slight others.” Cao Cao wanted to humiliate him and made him a drummer at a banquet. Mi Heng stripped naked before Cao Cao, put on the drummer’s clothes and played on. Cao Cao laughed: “I meant to shame him, and he shamed me.”

Cao Cao did not want to be seen as unable to tolerate a famous man, so he sent Mi Heng to Liu Biao. Mi Heng insulted Liu Biao too and was sent on to Huang Zu. At a banquet, he insulted Huang Zu, who had him killed. Mi Heng was 26.

Talent and Virtue

In the first chapter of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Sima Guang explains the fall of the Zhi clan. Zhi Xuanzi chose Zhi Yao as his heir, and the clan was destroyed. “Zhi Bo perished because his talent exceeded his virtue.”

Sima Guang then sorts people into four kinds. “One complete in talent and virtue is a sage. One lacking both is a fool. One whose virtue exceeds his talent is a gentleman. One whose talent exceeds his virtue is a petty man.” If no sage or gentleman can be found, “it is better to get a fool than a petty man.”

Virtue and Art

德才兼备 Having both virtue and ability. The 2019 regulations on appointing Party and government leaders name the principle decai jianbei, yi de wei xian: both virtue and ability, with virtue first.

德艺双馨 Virtue and art both fragrant. Said mostly of artists, whose character and art both have a good name. A dictionary example: “Mei Lanfang was truly an artist of both virtue and art.”

Filial and Incorrupt

In 134 BC, on the advice of Dong Zhongshu, Emperor Wu of Han ordered each commandery and kingdom to recommend one filial man and one incorrupt man every year. The recommendation soon became known as ju xiaolian, recommending the filial and incorrupt. Xiaolian means filial toward one’s elders, incorrupt and upright. It became the most important yearly route into office under the Han.

Lian and Mianzi

In 1944, the Chinese anthropologist Hu Hsien Chin published “The Chinese Concepts of ‘Face'” in the journal American Anthropologist. Hu described two Chinese words for face, lian (脸) and mianzi (面子), as “two sets of criteria by which prestige is gained and status secured or improved.”

Lian, Hu wrote, is “a social sanction for enforcing moral standards and an internalized sanction.” It “is conceived of as being maintained or lost as a whole.”

Granting Face

赏脸 To grant face. A polite formula used when asking someone to accept a request or a gift. It appears in Dream of the Red Chamber.

撕破脸 To tear the face. To break with someone openly, with no regard for feelings.

死要面子活受罪 To insist on face to the death and suffer while alive. To go through great hardship for the sake of appearances.

The Gaokao Returns

On August 6, 1977, at a forum on science and education that he chaired, Deng Xiaoping decided to restore the national university entrance exam, the gaokao. It had been closed for eleven years. The exam was to be restored that same year, with voluntary registration, a unified exam and admission on merit.

In the winter of 1977, about 5.7 million candidates of all ages sat the exam. They came from villages, factories and the army.

Strong Ties

In a 1988 survey in Tianjin, the sociologist Bian Yanjie found that jobs were obtained through strong ties more often than through weak ties. Job seekers often reached their helpers through an intermediary to whom both sides had strong ties, and those who used such indirect ties got better jobs. He published the study in 1997 in the American Sociological Review as “Bringing Strong Ties Back In.”

Trust Without Contracts

In Rural China (乡土中国), the sociologist Fei Xiaotong describes rural society as a society of people who know one another. There, he writes, “trust does not rest on respect for contracts.” It comes from “the reliability of knowing the rules of conduct so well that one acts without thinking.”

Acquaintances, he notes, say: “We are all acquaintances. A greeting is enough, why say more?” In modern society people fear that “the spoken word is no proof,” so “they make a mark and sign their names. Only then does law begin.”

Trusting Strangers

In January 2013, the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released its Blue Book of Social Mentality. Its survey of city residents found that fewer than half believed that most people in society can be trusted. Only 20 to 30 percent trusted strangers. More than 70 percent said they did not dare to trust strangers.