Visible Rank Archives - understand-culture

Elders First

The Dizigui (弟子规), a rhyming primer of the Qing dynasty, sets out how a child behaves toward elders. “Eating or drinking, sitting or walking, the elder goes first and the younger after.” (或饮食，或坐走，长者先，幼者后) “When addressing an elder, do not call him by his name.” (称尊长，勿呼名) “In front of an elder, keep the voice low.”

The text is generally attributed to Li Yuxiu, a scholar of the Kangxi era. Jia Cunren later revised it and gave it its present title. It is built on a line from the Analects: a young man is filial at home and respectful to his elders outside.

Seats at the Table

At a formal Chinese banquet, every seat has a rank. The seats facing the door are the seats of honor. A 2015 article on Xinhua’s website places the guests around the host’s seat, the zhupei (主陪): “To the right of the host is the seat of the chief guest, to the left the seat of the second guest, and opposite is the seat of the deputy host.”

An etiquette guide published by the Shanghai government adds a rule for drinking. To show respect, a guest keeps the rim of the glass below the host’s.

The Kowtow Question

On August 14, 1793, the Qianlong Emperor issued an edict. Everyone who came to the court with tribute had to perform the three kneelings and nine kowtows, san gui jiu kou (三跪九叩), even a king in person. The British envoy Lord Macartney refused. In the end, the emperor gave way and allowed him to kneel on one knee, as he did before his own king.

At the audience in Rehe on September 14, Macartney knelt on one knee. Later Chinese records said that he had been so overawed that he fell to both knees. Chinese Wikipedia calls this claim unfounded. One Chinese article holds that he performed the full kowtow at the emperor’s birthday ceremony three days later. The sources still disagree.

In 1816, another British envoy, Lord Amherst, also refused the kowtow. The Jiaqing Emperor expelled his embassy from the country.

The Vocabulary of Overstepping

没大没小 No big and no small. To ignore the courtesy owed by the young to the old and by the low to the high.

顶嘴 To push back with the mouth. To argue back, usually to an elder or a superior.

犯上 To offend those above. To defy one’s elders or superiors.

老几 Which number among the siblings. Used in a rhetorical question, as in 你算老几, it shows contempt. The other person counts for nothing.

Generation Names

In many old families, one character in each person’s name marks the generation. Since the early Ming, the descendants of Confucius have taken these characters from lists issued by the central government. Chinese Wikipedia gives the list for the 56th to the 105th generation, fifty characters in all. It begins 希言公彦承 and ends 永锡世绪昌.

Under the Qianlong Emperor, the court decreed that descendants of Confucius and of three other sage families must take their names from the granted characters, or they would not be entered in the family register.

The Ming founder set twenty characters for each line of his own descendants. According to Chinese Wikipedia, the former premier Zhu Rongji belongs to the generation 镕 in the line of the Prince of Min.

The Order of the Standing Committee

In official lists, the ordinary members of the Politburo appear in the order of the number of strokes in their surnames. The members of its Standing Committee do not. Their order, Southern Weekend wrote in 2013, is tied to “their division of work and their seniority in the Party.”

The paper added: “Although the ranking of leaders carries important political information, there is no written rule for it.”

The Vocabulary of Seniority

论资排辈 To rank by seniority and generation. To set a person’s level and treatment by length of service and generation. A dictionary example: “When a work unit assigns housing, ranking by seniority cannot be avoided.”

老资格 Old credentials. Standing and authority that come with age, as in “a veteran diplomat.”

前辈 A person who is older, or who has longer service.

Three Errors in Attendance

In the Analects, Confucius says: “In attending on a gentleman, there are three errors. To speak before it is one’s turn to speak is called rashness. Not to speak when it is one’s turn is called concealment. To speak without first watching his expression is called blindness.” (侍于君子有三愆：言未及之而言谓之躁，言及之而不言谓之隐，未见颜色而言谓之瞽。)

Speaking Before a Teacher

The opening chapter of the Book of Rites, Quli, sets out how the young speak in front of elders and teachers. “When an elder has not raised a matter, do not cut in with talk.” (长者不及，毋儳言) “Sitting with a teacher, when the teacher asks a question, answer only when he has finished.”

Meeting a teacher on the road, a student hurries forward and stands straight. “If the teacher speaks to him, he answers. If the teacher does not speak to him, he hurries away.” In front of a friend of his father, he does not answer unless he is asked.

Comrade, Not Director

A Party text of 1978 told members: “Within the Party, everyone addresses each other as comrade. Do not use official titles.” (党内一律互称同志，不要叫官衔。) In 2016, the Several Norms on Political Life Within the Party repeated the rule: “Within the Party, everyone is called comrade.”

A 2018 article on the Party’s official website still listed addressing people by their official post as a habit to be avoided. The rule had been written down twice, 38 years apart.