China Archives - Page 15 of 112 - understand-culture

Chu Oranges

In 1999, Chu Shijian, the former head of the Hongta tobacco group in Yunnan, was sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence was later reduced to 17 years. He was released on medical parole, in 2001 or 2002, as sources differ. He then leased about 2,400 mu of barren hillside in the Ailao Mountains and planted oranges. He was 74 or 75 when he began.

In October 2012, his oranges went on sale in Beijing through the newly founded online grocer Benlai Shenghuo, under the name Chu cheng, Chu oranges.

Security Merchants

From 1745, according to Chinese and English accounts, every foreign ship that came to trade at Guangzhou needed a baoshang, a security merchant, from among the licensed hong merchants. He was fully responsible for the foreign merchants’ duties and conduct. If foreigners left taxes unpaid, the hong merchants had to pay them.

In 1754, the hong merchants were made jointly liable for one another, without limit.

A Signed Recommendation

Article 13 of the Regulations on the Selection and Appointment of Party and Government Leading Officials, in force since March 3, 2019: “When an individual recommends a candidate for a leading post to the Party organization, he must write the recommendation responsibly and sign it.”

Guarantee Circles

Private firms in Wenzhou often guaranteed one another’s bank loans, forming what the press called 担保圈, guarantee circles. In August 2014, the 21st Century Business Herald reported that at the end of June that year, 28 circles in Wenzhou involved 50.7 billion yuan of bank credit. The figure came from a local post that was quickly deleted.

One plastic film maker in Ruian, Huatai Group, defaulted on about 409 million yuan owed to 14 banks. Five firms had guaranteed it, and it had guaranteed six others for 284 million yuan. Eleven firms were caught in one chain.

Bamboo in the Chest

In an essay on the bamboo paintings of Wen Yuke, the painter Wen Tong, Su Shi wrote: “So to paint bamboo, one must first have the finished bamboo in one’s chest. Take the brush and look closely, and when one sees what one wants to paint, rise quickly and follow it, moving the brush straight on to chase what one sees, like a hare leaping or a falcon diving. Let it go for a moment and it is gone.”

The Handian dictionary traces the idiom 胸有成竹, to have the finished bamboo in one’s chest, to this essay. It first meant having the whole image of the bamboo in mind before painting. Later it came to mean having made up one’s mind before acting.

Numbers in Mind

On March 13, 1949, Mao Zedong wrote Methods of Work of Party Committees. Point 7 is titled 胸中有”数”, have the numbers in one’s chest. “We must pay attention to the quantitative aspect of situations and problems and make a basic quantitative analysis.” Of officials who did not, he wrote: “Everything is without numbers in their chest, and as a result they cannot help making mistakes.”

No Battle Without Certainty

In his report of December 25, 1947, The Present Situation and Our Tasks, Mao Zedong set out the military principles of the People’s Liberation Army. Principle 5 reads: “Fight no battle unprepared, fight no battle without certainty of victory. Make every effort to be prepared for each battle, make every effort to ensure victory in the given balance of conditions between the enemy and ourselves.”

The Vocabulary of Certainty

十拿九稳 Ten grasps, nine firm. Very sure of success. The Handian dictionary gives the example: “His grades are excellent. Getting into university should be a sure thing.”

心中有数 To have the numbers in one’s heart. To understand a matter and be sure of how to handle it. Its opposite is 心中无数, to have no numbers in one’s heart.

Spare Tires

In the early hours of May 17, 2019, after the US Commerce Department added Huawei to its Entity List, He Tingbo of Huawei’s chip maker HiSilicon wrote to its staff. Thousands of HiSilicon people, she wrote, had built “spare tires” for the company’s survival, for a case they had assumed would never happen. “Today history has made its choice. All the spare tires we ever built have become regulars overnight.”

Know the Other

From the chapter on planning attacks in Sunzi’s Art of War: “Know the other and know oneself, and in a hundred battles there is no danger. Not knowing the other but knowing oneself, one wins once and loses once. Knowing neither the other nor oneself, every battle brings danger.” (知彼知己，百战不殆)