熟人 An acquaintance, a person one knows well. Its opposite is 生人, a stranger, literally a “raw person.”
靠谱 Reliable, trustworthy. Said of a person who does things in a sensible way.
拉关系 To pull connections. To make friends with someone one barely knows, for a purpose.
走后门 To go through the back door. To get things done through improper private connections.
在家靠父母，出门靠朋友 At home, rely on parents. Away from home, rely on friends.
Before he announced his new laws, the Qin reformer Shang Yang feared that the people would not believe him. He set up a pole three zhang tall at the south gate of the capital’s market and offered ten gold to anyone who moved it to the north gate.
People found this strange, and nobody moved it. He raised the reward to fifty. One man moved it and was paid fifty at once, “to show that there was no deceit.” Then the laws were issued. The story is in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian, and it is known as 徙木立信, moving a pole to establish trust.
Confucius said: “A person who is not trustworthy, I do not know how he can be of any use. A large cart without a yoke pin, a small cart without a collar pin, how can they move?” (Analects 2.22)
Asked what a state needs, Confucius named enough food, enough weapons and the trust of the people. If one had to go, he would give up the weapons first, then the food. “Since ancient times, all have died. Without trust, the people cannot stand.” (Analects 12.7)
On his first mission, traveling north, the Wu prince Ji Zha passed through the state of Xu. The Lord of Xu admired his sword but did not dare to say so. Ji Zha understood, but he was on a mission to the great states and did not give it. When he came back, the Lord of Xu had died. Ji Zha untied his sword and hung it on a tree at the tomb.
His attendant asked: “The Lord of Xu is dead. Who is it for?” Ji Zha answered: “Not so. In my heart I had already promised it to him. How could I betray my heart because he has died?” (Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian)
丢面子 or 丢脸 To lose face, to be disgraced in front of others.
给面子 To give face, to show someone respect in public.
情面 Affection and face.
家丑不可外扬 Family shame must not be spread outside.
Chapter 2 of the Daodejing describes the sage. “He gives life but does not possess. He acts but does not rely on it. He accomplishes his work but does not dwell on it (功成而弗居). Because he does not dwell on it, it does not leave him.”
The commentator Wang Bi added: “If one places the merit in oneself, the merit cannot last.”
哪里哪里 Where, where? Meaning: not at all. Often followed by 我还差得远, I still have far to go.
你过奖了 You praise me too much.
不敢当 I dare not accept it.
没有功劳也有苦劳 Even without merit, there is hard toil.
吃得苦中苦，方为人上人 Only by eating the bitterest of bitterness can one rise above others.
In 1984, Hu Yaobang extended the first saying when he praised an old Red Army veteran: “If not merit, then toil. If not toil, then fatigue.”
Article 35 of the Civil Servant Law says that civil servants shall be assessed comprehensively on their 德、能、勤、绩、廉: virtue, ability, diligence, results and integrity. The emphasis is on political quality and actual work results.
Diligence is assessed as a criterion of its own, next to results.
In March 1960, the oil driller Wang Jinxi led his team from Yumen to the new Daqing oilfield. They moved and installed the drilling rig by pulling with their hands and carrying on their shoulders. During a blowout, Wang jumped into the mud pit and stirred the mud with his body. He became known as the “Iron Man.”
At a rally on April 29, 1960, he shouted: “Better to live twenty years less, but we must take this great oilfield, whatever it costs.”