Indirect Messages Archives - understand-culture

Liu Laolao Asks for Help

In chapter 6 of Dream of the Red Chamber, the poor country woman Liu Laolao comes to the Jia mansion to ask for help. Wang Xifeng first explains that the household is busy. “From outside it looks splendid,” she says, “but no one knows that a great house has great difficulties.”

“Liu Laolao heard the talk of difficulties and took it to mean there was nothing,” and her heart pounded. Then Xifeng gives her twenty taels of silver. Liu Laolao answers with a coarse saying, and the servant who brought her keeps signaling with her eyes for her to stop.

The Vocabulary of Delay

从长计议 To plan from a long view. Not to decide in a hurry, but to discuss the matter slowly.

缓兵之计 A plan to slow the troops. A delaying tactic, used to gain time before acting.

推三阻四 To push three and block four. To decline with one excuse after another.

含糊其辞 To keep one’s words vague. To speak unclearly on purpose and take no clear position.

欲言又止 To want to speak and then stop. To hold back what one has to say.

A Frank Exchange of Views

In Chinese diplomatic reports, a meeting at which the two sides “had a frank exchange” (进行了坦率交流) is understood to mean that they disagreed seriously.

In a 2022 article on diplomatic language, the scholar Wang Yizhou explains this reading. He also lists other phrases that take the place of plain words in diplomacy: “concern,” “serious concern,” “deep unease,” “great regret,” “strong dissatisfaction” and “severe condemnation.”

Seeing the Guest Out

The Chinese dictionary Handian gives two meanings for 送客, to see a guest out. The first is to see a visitor off. The second is that “the host signals that the guest should leave.”

Its example comes from chapter 49 of the novel A Brief History of Enlightenment (文明小史): “When he had finished speaking, he raised his teacup, and someone beside him called out: ‘See the guest out!'”

The Vocabulary of Hints

言外之意 The meaning outside the words. A meaning that is implied but not stated clearly.

弦外之音 The sound beyond the strings. Originally the lingering sound of music. Today a meaning that comes through indirectly in what is said.

心照不宣 Hearts reflect each other, nothing is declared. Both sides understand, and there is no need to say it.

拐弯抹角 To turn bends and go around corners. To speak without coming straight to the point.