China Archives - Page 101 of 112

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.

High Notes, Little Action

In December 2017, Xinhua reported a written instruction by Xi Jinping on formalism and bureaucratism. It called for firm measures “in particular against prominent problems such as making many statements in a high key, with little action and poor implementation” (表态多调门高、行动少落实差).

Two-Faced People

Article 51 of the Communist Party’s Regulations on Disciplinary Action, in their 2018 version, punishes members who are disloyal and dishonest toward the Party, “are one thing outside and another inside, comply in public and defy in secret, and deceive those above and below.” The Party calls such a member a 两面人, a two-faced person.

In January 2026, Xi Jinping described such people to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Some, he said, “state their position very quickly and in a very high key” on carrying out the Party’s major decisions, “but in fact comply in public and defy in secret.”

Words for Later

再说 Let’s talk about it later. Literally “speak again.” Used to put a decision off.

从长计议 To plan for the long term. Not to decide now.

好说 Easy to discuss. A modest, polite phrase. It can also mean “that can be arranged.”

推三阻四 To push three and block four. To give one excuse after another.

敷衍 To deal with something only on the surface.

Patting One’s Chest

拍胸脯 To pat one’s chest. To take responsibility, to vouch for something. A dictionary example: “No problem, I dare to pat my chest on it!”

打包票 To issue a guarantee. To give a full guarantee.

包在我身上 Wrap it on my body. Leave it to me, I guarantee it.

The Good-Person Card

你是个好人 “You are a good person.” Since the 1990s, this has been a common way to turn down a suitor, often followed by “I believe you can find someone better than me.” The phrase spread from online forums in Taiwan.

Internet slang calls it receiving a 好人卡, a “good-person card.” To refuse a suitor gently is 发卡, to hand out a card.

Asking for One’s Bones

In the Han dynasty, Shu Guang and Shu Shou served together as tutors to the crown prince. After five years, Shu Guang said: “Know when enough is enough, and there is no disgrace. Withdraw when the work is done, that is the way of Heaven.” On the same day, both reported sick.

After three months of sick leave, Shu Guang said that his illness was serious and petitioned to “beg for his bones” (乞骸骨), the old formula for asking to retire. The emperor agreed and gave them twenty jin of gold. Hundreds of carriages saw them off.

Following Master Red Pine

Zhang Liang was the chief strategist of Liu Bang, the founder of the Han dynasty. After he was made a marquis, he announced: “To be teacher to an emperor by a three-inch tongue, with a fief of ten thousand households and the rank of marquis, this is the highest a commoner can reach. For me it is enough. I wish to leave the affairs of men and wander with Master Red Pine.”

Master Red Pine is a legendary figure. Zhang Liang stopped eating grain and practiced breathing exercises. After the emperor died, Empress Lü insisted that he eat, and he gave in. (Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian)

Steps to Come Down

给台阶下 To give someone steps to come down. To offer a way out of an awkward position.

不了了之 To settle a matter by not settling it. To leave it unfinished, let it drag on, and count it as done.

冷处理 Cold treatment. To leave a matter untouched for now and settle it at a better moment.

推托 To decline with an excuse.

婉拒 To refuse gently.