In May 2016, a commentary in the Procuratorial Daily, republished by People’s Daily Online, criticized officials who hide behind procedure. It described their habits with two set phrases: “When something comes up, they do not handle it, but ‘wait and see.’ They kick the ball back and forth and ‘study it, study it.'” (遇事不办”等等再看”，来回踢球”研究研究”。)
On Expressing an Opinion
On July 8, 1925, Lu Xun wrote Lilun (立论), On Expressing an Opinion, collected in Wild Grass. A pupil dreams that he asks his teacher how to state a view.
The teacher tells of a family that shows its baby son to guests at his one-month celebration. One guest says the boy will be rich and is thanked. A second says he will be an official and is complimented in return. A third says the boy will die and is beaten by all of them together.
“To say he will die is to say what must happen. To say he will be rich may be a lie.” The pupil wants neither to lie nor to be beaten. Then, says the teacher, he must say: “Aiya! This child! Look! How very… Ayo! Haha! Hehe! he, hehehehe.”
Zou Ji and the King of Qi
In a story from the Strategies of the Warring States, the minister Zou Ji asks his wife, his concubine and a guest whether he is more handsome than Xu Gong of the northern city. All three say he is. When Xu Gong visits, Zou Ji sees that he is not.
He concludes: “My wife calls me handsome because she favors me. My concubine calls me handsome because she fears me. My guest calls me handsome because he wants something from me.”
He tells the king that the women of the palace all favor him, the ministers all fear him, and everyone in the land wants something from him. “From this I see that Your Majesty is deeply deceived.” The king then offers rewards in three grades. The highest goes to those who criticize his faults to his face.
No False Words, Not All True Words
假话全不讲，真话不全讲: “Speak no false words at all, but do not speak all the true words.” The line is attributed to the scholar Ji Xianlin. He explained it this way: “Not everything need be said, but what is said must be true.”
The line circulates in several forms, and the text in which Ji first wrote it has not been identified.
The Entry Pledge
In the Water Margin, the fugitive Lin Chong comes to the outlaws of Liangshan and asks to join them. The innkeeper Zhu Gui tells him what is required. He must go down the mountain, kill a man and bring back his head, and then the chief will have no doubts about him. “This is called the toumingzhuang” (投名状), the pledge that enters one’s name.
The chief, Wang Lun, gives Lin Chong three days to bring one.
Hometown and Alumni Associations
The Communist Party’s Regulations on Disciplinary Action name hometown, alumni and comrades-in-arms associations, among others. The provision reads: “Party members who are leading cadres and who, in violation of the relevant rules, organize or take part in spontaneously formed hometown associations, alumni associations, comrades-in-arms associations and the like shall, where the circumstances are serious, be given a warning, a serious warning or removal from Party posts.”
The provision was Article 68 in the 2015 version of the regulations, Article 74 in 2018 and Article 82 in 2023.
Mountaintops
On February 15, 1945, Mao Zedong spoke about shantou zhuyi (山头主义), “mountaintop-ism,” in which each group in the Party holds to its own hill. He did not deny that such groups existed. “Acknowledging that mountaintop-ism exists,” he said, “has the purpose of eliminating the mountaintops, so that they melt together and the whole Party becomes one body.”
Ren Zhongping
People’s Daily prints its most important commentaries under the name Ren Zhongping (任仲平). The name belongs to no single person. It is an abbreviated homophone of Renmin Ribao zhongyao pinglun, “People’s Daily important commentary,” and the articles are written by a team. A former deputy editor-in-chief has written that he set up the column and gave it this name.
In September 2025, a Ren Zhongping article marked the 80th anniversary of victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan. Its title: “Justice Will Prevail, Peace Will Prevail, the People Will Prevail.”
Research Groups as Authors
Chinese research reports are often credited to a ketizu (课题组), a research group, instead of to individuals. The report on China’s macroeconomy for 2023, published in the journal Economic Theory and Business Management in 2024, is credited to “the China Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasting Research Group of Renmin University of China.”
The Result of United Struggle
The Government Work Report delivered on March 5, 2026, explains the achievements of the past period in one sentence. “Fundamentally, they are due to the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core steering the course, and to the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought.”
The same sentence ends: “They are the result of the united struggle of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all ethnic groups of the whole country.” The 2025 report used a closely similar sentence.