In July 1957, the economist Ma Yinchu, president of Peking University, published his New Population Theory. He proposed controlling population growth. Mao Zedong, Kang Sheng and others opposed it. From the Anti-Rightist Campaign on, Ma was criticized across the country. In 1960, he was forced to resign as president, and he was placed under house arrest.
He was rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution. In 1979, he was named honorary president of Peking University.
In his essay The Difficulties of Persuasion (说难), Han Feizi wrote: “The dragon is a creature that can be tamed and ridden. But under its throat it has reversed scales a foot across. Whoever touches them is sure to be killed. A ruler also has reversed scales. A persuader who can avoid touching them has nearly succeeded.”
打招呼 To call out a greeting. Also to tell someone about a matter beforehand or afterward, or to remind them of it.
吹风 To blow wind. To let information out, or to make an opinion known.
通气 To let the air through. To keep each other informed.
摸底 To touch the bottom. To find out the real situation and the inside story.
探口风 To probe the wind from the mouth. To sound out what another person thinks. The Handian dictionary’s example comes from marriage. Instead of proposing a match, the other side first sent someone to “throw a stone to test the road” and sound things out.
In the second year of his reign, Emperor Wen of Han abolished the crime of slander and evil words. “In ancient times, the court had a banner for proposing good and a post for criticism, to open the way of government and invite remonstrance,” he said.
“Now the law has the crime of slander and evil words. This makes the ministers afraid to speak their minds, and the ruler has no way to hear of his faults.” The edict is in the Records of the Grand Historian.
Article 10 of the Party Constitution sets the rule for decisions in Party committees. “All important questions are to be discussed and decided collectively by the Party committee, according to the principle of collective leadership, democratic centralism, individual deliberation and decision by meeting.”
In the original, the four steps are 集体领导、民主集中、个别酝酿、会议决定. The third, 个别酝酿, is deliberation with members one by one, before the meeting. The meeting comes last.
The Huainanzi says: “Yao set up a drum for those who dared to remonstrate. Shun raised a post for criticism.” (尧置敢谏之鼓，舜立诽谤之木) Asked what Yao’s post for criticism was, the scholar Cui Bao answered in his Notes on Things Old and New (古今注): “It is today’s huabiao.” Some called it the marker post, he explained, “because it shows that the king accepts remonstrance,” and also to mark the roads.
Huabiao columns stand in front of Tiananmen in Beijing.
In March 2015, the General Offices of the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued rules on leading officials who interfere in judicial cases. Article 5 says that judicial staff “must record such interference fully and truthfully, so that every step leaves a trace and can be checked.”
The rules also cover interference through an official’s staff or relatives. Their requests must be recorded too.
Duke Ling of Wei asked Confucius about battle formations. Confucius replied: “Of sacrificial vessels I have heard something. Military matters I have not studied.” (俎豆之事，则尝闻之矣；军旅之事，未之学也) The next day he left. (Analects)
留中 To keep inside. The Handian dictionary defines it as an emperor keeping a minister’s memorial in the palace, “neither sending it for discussion nor answering it.” Its example comes from the History of Ming: memorials “kept inside for several months.”
The practice is closely linked with the Wanli Emperor. A study by Li Jia finds that cases began early in his reign and became serious from its middle years on.
In a short piece dated July 8, 1925, later collected in Wild Grass, Lu Xun dreams that he asks his teacher how to make an argument (立论). The teacher tells a story. At a baby boy’s full-month celebration, one guest says the child will be rich and is thanked. Another says the child will be an official and is complimented in return. A third says the child will die and is beaten by everyone together.
“Saying he will die is certain. Saying he will be rich and noble may be a lie. But the liar is rewarded, and the one who says what is certain is beaten.”
The pupil wants neither to lie nor to be beaten. The teacher answers: “Then you must say: ‘Aiya! This child! Look! How very… Oh! Haha! Hehe! he, hehehehe.'”