China Archives - Page 64 of 112 - understand-culture

Licensed Brokers

The Great Ming Code ordered that the brokers of cities and villages, 牙行, be chosen from households that held property. Officials gave them seals and registers. Anyone who acted as a broker without a license received sixty strokes, and his fees went to the state.

The Handian dictionary defines 牙行 as a person or firm that helps buyer and seller close a deal and takes a commission. Its example comes from a Ming story: “When great households need someone to stand in the middle and guarantee, they often use him. He is plainly a broker without hair.” The man described is a monk.

For Trial Implementation

Several of China’s basic laws were first passed “for trial implementation” (试行). The Environmental Protection Law (for Trial Implementation) was adopted in principle in September 1979. A final Environmental Protection Law followed in December 1989. The Civil Procedure Law (for Trial Implementation) took effect on October 1, 1982, and was replaced by a new Civil Procedure Law in 1991.

The Enterprise Bankruptcy Law (for Trial Implementation) of December 1986 lasted longest. It was repealed when the new Enterprise Bankruptcy Law took effect on June 1, 2007.

Compradors

Foreign trading houses in late Qing China dealt with Chinese merchants through a 买办, a comprador. After 1842, compradors handled the firms’ buying and selling with inland Chinese merchants for a commission. They also hired, managed and guaranteed the firms’ Chinese employees.

A comprador needed a guarantor of his own and often paid a deposit. The guarantor signed a letter of guarantee, witnessed by the foreign firm’s agent and signed by the consulate. Compradors were the richest Chinese merchants of the late Qing.

Provisional for Thirty-Two Years

On December 13, 1993, the State Council issued the Provisional Regulations on Value-Added Tax (增值税暂行条例). China’s VAT rested on these “provisional” rules for more than three decades. On December 25, 2024, the NPC Standing Committee adopted the VAT Law. It took effect on January 1, 2026, and the provisional regulations were repealed on the same day.

The Thirteen Hongs

From 1757, foreign merchants could trade only at Guangzhou, and only through the Thirteen Hongs, the licensed merchant houses. A foreign merchant who wanted Chinese tea, porcelain or silk had to buy it through a hong. A Chinese study notes that all negotiations between the foreign merchants and the Chinese side went through the Thirteen Hongs as intermediary.

Small Steps, Fast Iteration

In a letter to partners published in July 2012, Tencent founder Ma Huateng summed up fourteen years of the company’s experience as a “rule of gray” (灰度法则) with seven dimensions: demand, speed, flexibility, redundancy, open collaboration, innovation and evolution.

On speed, he wrote: “My suggestion is ‘small steps, fast running, quick iteration.'” (小步快跑，快速迭代)

The Pakistan Channel

In 1970 and 1971, messages between Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai passed through Pakistan’s president, Yahya Khan. Zhou’s reply said that the Chinese government welcomed an American envoy and that the timing “may be settled through the President of Pakistan.”

On July 8, 1971, Henry Kissinger arrived in Islamabad. At a banquet, Yahya Khan announced loudly that the heat had affected Kissinger’s health and invited him to rest for two days at the presidential villa. Kissinger instead flew secretly to Beijing and met Zhou Enlai.

One, Two, Three Children

In November 2013, the Third Plenum allowed couples to have two children if one parent was an only child. From January 1, 2016, every couple could have two children. On May 31, 2021, a Politburo meeting announced that couples could have three, “to respond to the deepening of population aging.”

The Vocabulary of Vouching

引荐 To lead in and recommend. To recommend someone, or to introduce someone into a group.

中保 A guarantor in the middle. A person who stands between the two sides of a sale or a loan and answers for it.

铺保 A shop guarantee. In the past, a guarantee given for a person in the name of a shop.

不看僧面看佛面 If not for the monk’s face, then for the Buddha’s. To help or forgive someone for the sake of a third person.

Marking the Boat

A man of Chu was crossing a river when his sword fell from the boat into the water. He quickly cut a mark on the boat: “This is where my sword fell.” When the boat stopped, he went into the water at the mark to look for it. The boat had moved. The sword had not. (Lüshi Chunqiu)

The book draws the lesson for government: “The times have moved, but the law has not. Is it not hard to govern like this?” And: “The world changes and the times move. It is right to change the law.” (世易时移，变法宜矣)

The Han Feizi tells of a farmer who saw a hare run into a tree stump and break its neck. He put down his plow to wait by the stump for another. “To govern the people of today with the government of the former kings is all of the stump-watching kind.”