Face Archives - understand-culture

A Great Deal of Trouble

On September 25, 1972, the Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka spoke at a welcome banquet in Beijing. He said that Japan had caused the Chinese people trouble. In the Chinese accounts, the phrase is 添了很大的麻烦, “caused a great deal of trouble.” A People’s Daily article says that it “provoked strong resentment among the Chinese people.”

At the talks the next day, Zhou Enlai raised the phrase. According to a Party history account, he found the meaning “too light.” The joint statement that followed says that Japan keenly feels its responsibility for the serious damage the war caused the Chinese people, and “deeply reproaches itself.”

The exact wording of the speech differs between sources. The Japanese record, as quoted in a Chinese report, has 迷惑, the Japanese word meiwaku.

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 Letter of the Two Sorries

On April 1, 2001, a US surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter collided near Hainan Island. The Chinese pilot Wang Wei was lost. The 24 American crew members were held in China. China asked for an apology. The United States answered: “We did not do anything wrong, and therefore it was not possible to apologize.”

On April 11, Ambassador Joseph Prueher handed a letter to Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan. It said the United States was “very sorry” for the pilot’s death and “very sorry” that the plane had entered Chinese airspace. The Chinese version used 深表歉意, a phrase of deep regret or apology. Chinese state media called it an apology. Washington called it “an expression of regret and sorrow.” The crew was released.

A senior US official said: “What the Chinese will choose to characterize as an apology, we would probably choose to characterize as an expression of regret or sorrow.”

Sayings on Face

人活脸，树活皮 A person lives by face, a tree lives by its bark. A person must guard his good name. Also 人要脸，树要皮.

打人休打脸，骂人休揭短 When hitting someone, do not hit the face. When scolding someone, do not expose his faults.

揭短 To expose a person’s shortcomings and make them public.

得饶人处且饶人 Where one can spare a person, spare him. To be tolerant and leave room. The line is from the Song writer Yao Kuan.

留余地 To leave room. Not to go to extremes in speech or action, so that there is space to turn back.

Yanzi at the Small Gate

When Yanzi of Qi went as an envoy to Chu, the people of Chu made a small door for him beside the great gate, because he was short. Yanzi would not enter. “Those sent to a country of dogs go in by the dogs’ gate. I have been sent to Chu, so I should not go in by this gate.” He was led in through the main gate.

On another visit, the King of Chu planned to humiliate him. During a banquet, officers brought in a bound man and said he was from Qi and had stolen. The king asked Yanzi: “Do the people of Qi steal by nature?”

Yanzi answered that an orange grown south of the Huai River is an orange, but grown north of it becomes a bitter orange. People of Qi do not steal at home. “Could it be that the soil and water of Chu make people good at stealing?” The king laughed: “A sage is not a man to joke with. I have brought the shame on myself.”

The Meeting at Mianchi

The Records of the Grand Historian describe a meeting at Mianchi between the kings of Qin and Zhao. Over wine, the King of Qin said: “I have heard that the King of Zhao loves music. Please play the zither.” The King of Zhao played. The Qin historian stepped forward and wrote: “On such a day, the King of Qin met the King of Zhao to drink and ordered the King of Zhao to play the zither.”

The Zhao minister Lin Xiangru knelt before the King of Qin with a clay pot and asked him to strike it. When the king refused, Lin said: “Within five paces, I can spatter Your Majesty with the blood of my neck.” The king struck the pot once. Lin had the Zhao historian write: “On such a day, the King of Qin struck the pot for the King of Zhao.”

Granting Face

赏脸 To grant face. A polite formula used when asking someone to accept a request or a gift. It appears in Dream of the Red Chamber.

撕破脸 To tear the face. To break with someone openly, with no regard for feelings.

死要面子活受罪 To insist on face to the death and suffer while alive. To go through great hardship for the sake of appearances.