Graded Rank Archives - understand-culture

Twelve Grades of Rank

The Regulations on Parallel Posts and Ranks for Civil Servants took effect on June 1, 2019. Article 7 sets twelve ranks for civil servants in general administration. They run from first-class inspector and second-class inspector, through four classes of researcher and four classes of principal staff member, down to first-class and second-class staff member.

Article 8 ties each rank to a band of grades, jibie. A first-class inspector sits between grades 13 and 8. A second-class staff member sits between grades 27 and 19.

The Order of Toasts

An etiquette column in the Handan Daily, reprinted by Sina Finance in February 2023, explains how to toast at a dinner. “In general, toasts follow the order of age, of rank in the job, and of host and guest.” (一般情况下敬酒应以年龄大小、职位高低、宾主身份为序) The toasts begin “with the guests of honor and the elders” and come only then to the ordinary guests.

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 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.

Taking Seats at Liangshan

Chapter 71 of the Water Margin is titled “In the Hall of Loyalty, a stone tablet receives a text from Heaven. The heroes of Liangshan take their places in order.” The tablet sets out the names of the 108 heroes.

The text reads: “Now the number is complete. Heaven has fixed the places in two grades, large and small. The tiangang and disha stars have all been given their order.” Song Jiang stands first.

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.”

Dropping the Deputy

In 2014, a Beijing official explained to the Beijing News how deputies are addressed. “Nobody says Deputy Director X. Deputy leaders are mostly called by surname plus a short form of the title.” The word fu, deputy, is left out.

A professor warned about one short form, the surname plus fu. For deputies named Zu or Yue, it gives Zu fu or Yue fu, which sound like the words for grandfather and father-in-law.

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.

P-Levels

Alibaba’s career ladder has a professional track from P5 to P14 and a management track from M1 to M10. According to the business site Jiemian, a P8 earns on average about a million yuan a year in cash and shares, and a P10 ranks roughly as a vice president.