Face Archives - understand-culture

Red Faces and Sweat

Article 7 of the Communist Party’s Regulations on Intra-Party Supervision, adopted in October 2016, sets out four forms of discipline, from mild to severe. In the first, criticism and self-criticism are to be practiced regularly, with talks and written inquiries, so that “red faces and sweat” (红红脸、出出汗) become the norm.

Light Party penalties and changes of post are to make up most cases. Heavy penalties are to be the minority. Investigation for serious violations and suspected crimes is to be a very small minority.

Not in the Parent Group

In October 2018, China Education Daily reported on new local rules for teachers in WeChat groups with parents. The education bureau of Hengshui said that teachers may not post students’ rankings or “negative information” about students in the group. Weifang ruled out naming or criticizing students, and publishing scores or rankings. A middle school in Hangzhou stated: “Teachers may not criticize anyone by name in the group.” (教师不得在群内点名批评)

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.”

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.

The Meeting at Mianchi

The Records of the Grand Historian describe a meeting at Mianchi between the kings of Qin and Zhao. Over wine, the King of Qin said: “I have heard that the King of Zhao loves music. Please play the zither.” The King of Zhao played. The Qin historian stepped forward and wrote: “On such a day, the King of Qin met the King of Zhao to drink and ordered the King of Zhao to play the zither.”

The Zhao minister Lin Xiangru knelt before the King of Qin with a clay pot and asked him to strike it. When the king refused, Lin said: “Within five paces, I can spatter Your Majesty with the blood of my neck.” The king struck the pot once. Lin had the Zhao historian write: “On such a day, the King of Qin struck the pot for the King of Zhao.”

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.”

The Vocabulary of Face

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.

Lu Xun on Face

In October 1934, Lu Xun published a short essay called On “Face” (说”面子”). It begins: “‘Face’ is something we often hear about in conversation.”

Lu Xun writes that it is good that Chinese people want face. The pity is that this face is “round and flexible” (圆机活法) and good at changing.