Wide Authority Archives - understand-culture

The Work Unit’s Letter

Until 2003, a couple who wanted to marry needed a certificate of their marital status from their work unit, danwei (单位), or from their village or residents’ committee. A 2003 report on Sina put it simply: “In the past, both marriage and divorce required a letter of introduction from the work unit.”

The new Marriage Registration Regulations took effect on October 1, 2003. They dropped the certificate. Applicants now declare their marital status themselves. The same report summed up the change: “The government and the work unit no longer ‘interfere’ in people’s marriages.”

Repaid as a Man of the State

Yu Rang served the noble families of Fan and Zhonghang. When Zhi Bo destroyed them, Yu Rang went over to Zhi Bo. Later Zhi Bo was killed by Zhao Xiangzi, and Yu Rang tried again and again to kill Zhao Xiangzi. “A gentleman dies for the one who knows him,” he said. “A woman makes herself beautiful for the one who delights in her.” (士為知己者死，女為說己者容)

Zhao Xiangzi asked why he took such deep revenge for Zhi Bo, when he had done nothing for his first masters. Yu Rang answered: “The Fan and Zhonghang treated me as an ordinary man, so I repaid them as an ordinary man. Zhi Bo treated me as a man of the state, so I repay him as a man of the state.” (Records of the Grand Historian)

The Seal Left Behind

In chapter 27 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu leaves Cao Cao to return to his old lord, Liu Bei. He seals up the gold that Cao Cao has given him and hangs up his seal of office, feng jin gua yin (封金挂印). One of Cao Cao’s generals wants to pursue him. Cao Cao stops him: “He does not forget his old lord. He comes and goes openly. He is a true man.”

Cao Cao then tells Zhang Liao: “Wealth could not move his heart. Rank and salary could not change his will. I respect such a man deeply.” He says that he will see Guan Yu off with travel money and a robe.

Life Mentor

In August 2009, the Ministry of Education issued Regulations on the Work of Head Teachers in Primary and Secondary Schools. Every class must have one head teacher, the banzhuren (班主任). Article 2 says that the head teacher “should strive to become the life mentor of primary and secondary school students.”

Article 8 asks the head teacher to know every student fully and to analyze each student’s “thinking, psychology, study and living conditions.” Article 12 asks the head teacher to contact students’ parents and their communities on his or her own initiative.

An Old Student Repays Three Times

In the Ming story An Old Student Repays a Favor Over Three Generations (老门生三世报恩), the examiner Kuai prefers young candidates. Three times, without meaning to, he passes the same old man, Xianyu Tong. Xianyu passes the provincial examination at fifty-seven and the metropolitan examination at sixty-one.

Xianyu later clears Kuai’s son of a false charge. “This only repays a little of my teacher’s kindness,” he says. “I still owe much feeling.” He then keeps Kuai’s grandson at his official residence to study and gives him three hundred taels. Kuai thinks: “Plant thorns and get thorns. Plant peach and plum trees and get shade.”

Calling the Supervisor Boss

Many Chinese graduate students call their supervisor laoban, boss. In an essay, the philosopher Zhou Guoping called this “a fairly common phenomenon” in Chinese universities. A supervisor becomes a boss, he wrote, “first through the power to decide whether a student can graduate, and second through the funds in his hands.”

In June 2026, the Beijing News reported a survey in which more than half of the respondents wanted their supervisors to be more like supporters than traditional bosses.

Ties for Life

一日为师，终身为父 Teacher for a day, father for life. An old saying: whoever was one’s master even for a day deserves lifelong respect as a father. It appears in a Yuan play by Guan Hanqing.

老乡 A person from the same home region.

战友 A comrade-in-arms. Someone who fought side by side with one.

Patron and Disciple

Under the Tang imperial examinations, a successful candidate regarded the chief examiner who passed him as his zuozhu, his patron, and himself as the examiner’s mensheng, his disciple. In the words of the literary historian Hu Kexian, “the patron regarded his disciples as his ‘estate fields,’ and the disciples regarded their patron as the ‘owner of the garden.'”

Candidates who had failed many times felt especially grateful once they passed. After the examiner Gao Ying died, Bai Juyi passed his old house and still wrote a poem of gratitude.

The Entrustment at Baidi

In 223, the dying Liu Bei, ruler of Shu Han, called his chancellor Zhuge Liang and entrusted his son to him. “Your talent is ten times that of Cao Pi,” he said. “If my heir can be helped, help him. If he has no talent, you may take the throne yourself.”

Zhuge Liang wept: “I will give all the strength of my limbs and the loyalty of my heart, until death.” Liu Bei told his sons to serve the chancellor “as a father.”