Mediated Access Archives - understand-culture

A Gate as Deep as the Sea

In chapter 6 of Dream of the Red Chamber, the poor country woman Liu Laolao hopes for help from the great Jia household. “The gate of a noble house is as deep as the sea,” she says. “Nobody there knows me.” Her son-in-law has a plan. She should first find Zhou Rui, a servant of the lady of the house. “This Zhou Rui once did a piece of business with my father. We were on very good terms.”

At the side gate, the doormen ignore her and tell her to wait by the wall. She finds Zhou Rui’s wife instead. Years before, Gou’er had helped Zhou Rui a great deal in a dispute over buying land, so his wife finds it hard to refuse. She takes Liu Laolao first to Pinger, the trusted maid of Wang Xifeng. Only then is Liu Laolao led in.

The Leader’s Secretary

In 2014, a report compiled from Xinhua, Outlook Weekly and the Beijing News described the hidden power of the secretaries of leading officials. They are the people closest to the leader, and those who want favors approach them first. It quoted Li Zhen, once known as “Hebei’s first secretary”: “When I was a secretary, someone was in charge of me, but no one supervised me.”

A report of the discipline inspection and supervision authorities, carried by Huanqiu, noted that in bribery cases, “the secretaries, drivers, subordinates and friends of leading cadres are also often involved.”

Thread and Needle

In Liu Xiang’s Garden of Persuasions (说苑), Lord Mengchang has placed a retainer with the King of Qi. After three years the man has still received no post, and he complains. Lord Mengchang answers: “A thread enters by the needle, but the needle does not make it hold. A woman marries through a matchmaker, but the matchmaker does not make the two close. Your talent must be thin.”

The retainer replies that a fox in the altar of the soil is not attacked, and a rat in the altar is not smoked out, “because of what they rest on.” Lord Mengchang then recommended him to Qi again, and the King of Qi made him chief minister. The idiom 穿针引线, to thread the needle, means to act as a go-between.

The Vocabulary of Vouching

引荐 To lead in and recommend. To recommend someone, or to introduce someone into a group.

中保 A guarantor in the middle. A person who stands between the two sides of a sale or a loan and answers for it.

铺保 A shop guarantee. In the past, a guarantee given for a person in the name of a shop.

不看僧面看佛面 If not for the monk’s face, then for the Buddha’s. To help or forgive someone for the sake of a third person.

Chasing Han Xin

Han Xin joined Liu Bang’s army but held only a minor post. He talked often with the chancellor Xiao He, who thought him remarkable. At Nanzheng, dozens of officers deserted, and Han Xin left too. Xiao He rode after him without telling Liu Bang. Back in camp, he told the angry king: “Generals are easy to find. As for Han Xin, he is guoshi wushuang, without equal in the realm.”

Liu Bang offered to make Han Xin a general. Xiao He said that would not keep him. Liu Bang agreed to make him grand general, with an altar and a ceremony on a chosen day. “The generals were all pleased, each thinking he would be grand general. When the appointment came, it was Han Xin, and the whole army was astonished.” (Records of the Grand Historian)

The Letter to Han of Jingzhou

In a letter to Han Chaozong of Jingzhou, the poet Li Bai quoted a saying of the scholars of his day: sheng bu yong feng wanhu hou, dan yuan yi shi Han Jingzhou. “In life, there is no need to be made a lord of ten thousand households. One only wishes to know Han of Jingzhou.”

People’s Daily dates the letter to 734, when Li Bai was 34 and living in Anlu. He asked Han to recommend him for office. The letter brought him neither a post nor a meeting.

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.”

The Vocabulary of Acquaintance

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.