Surface Harmony Archives - understand-culture

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.

Three Kinds of Silence

In 2008, four researchers published a study in Acta Psychologica Sinica (心理学报) on the measurement of employee silence in the Chinese context. They surveyed 928 employees with a questionnaire of their own design. They found that employee silence takes three forms: acquiescent silence, indifferent silence and defensive silence.

Trust in the superior reduced all three. Trust in the organization reduced only the first two. It had no significant effect on defensive silence.

Good-Guy-ism

In September 2013, People’s Daily Online, carrying a Xinhua report, gave Xi Jinping’s call to “firmly oppose liberalism and good-guy-ism (好人主义) in Party life.” A Hebei official described the habit of avoiding conflict: “Afraid of touching contradictions, they plant more flowers and fewer thorns.” (多栽花少栽刺)

In 2021, an article in People’s Daily wrote: “A spirit of harmony, Mr. Nice Guys, you are good, I am good, everyone is good. This is not unity. It is slackness, and also a kind of numbness.”

Combat Liberalism

On September 7, 1937, Mao Zedong wrote a short text called Combat Liberalism (反对自由主义). It lists the kinds of liberal behavior inside the Party. The second is “irresponsible criticism behind people’s backs, instead of making suggestions to the organization.”

“Saying nothing to people’s faces, but talking wildly behind their backs. Saying nothing at the meeting, but talking wildly after it.” (当面不说，背后乱说；开会不说，会后乱说。)

A Frank Exchange of Views

In 2015, the former foreign minister Li Zhaoxing explained the language of diplomatic statements. “If the newspaper says that the two leaders held frank talks, it means that they had different views.”

He went on: “What does ‘frankly exchanged views’ mean? It means that different views were also expressed.” (坦诚地交换了意见)

Slander in the Belly

The Records of the Grand Historian tell the fate of Yan Yi, a minister of agriculture under Emperor Wu of Han. Yan had once told the emperor that a new currency made of white deerskin was a bad idea, and the emperor was displeased. Later, a guest spoke to Yan about the problems with a new order. Yan did not reply, but his lips moved slightly.

The official Zhang Tang charged that Yan, a high minister, had seen that the order was harmful, “did not speak up, but slandered it in his belly” (不入言而腹诽). Yan was sentenced to death. “From then on,” the historian writes, “most ministers and officials flattered and sought to please.”

A Thousand Yeses

The reformer Shang Yang asked the scholar Zhao Liang whether his rule of Qin was better than that of a famous earlier minister. Zhao answered: “The skins of a thousand sheep are not worth the fur under one fox’s leg. The yes, yes of a thousand men is not worth the frank objection of one gentleman.” (Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian)

The idiom 唯唯诺诺, to say yes to everything, goes back to the Han Feizi. It describes the people around a ruler who say “yes” before he has given an order and “certainly” before he has asked.

Mr. Good-Good

The Eastern Han scholar Sima Hui never spoke of other people’s faults. Whatever he heard, he answered “Good.” Asked how he was, he said “Good.” When a man told him that his son had died, he said “Very good.” His wife scolded him. Sima Hui replied: “What you say is also very good.”

The Ming writer Feng Menglong, who tells the story, says that the expression 好好先生, Mr. Good-Good, comes from it. Dictionaries define it as a person who does not ask what is right or wrong and only wants peace.